Understanding Telemetry Limitations

Transcend's telemetry system provides visibility into tracking activity across your websites by displaying Activity, Last Seen dates, Encounters, and Deployed Sites for cookies and data flows. However, certain types of tracking technologies may show "N/A" or no data in these fields.

This is expected behavior and does not indicate an issue with consent enforcement. All tracking technologies in your approved inventory are properly regulated regardless of whether telemetry data is visible.

Some tracking technologies use pattern-based rules to match multiple variations of cookies or network requests. For example:

  • A regular expression rule matching would cover _ga* and https://api.example.com/track*.
  • A host rule matching multiple subdomains, e.g. a rule of example.com (http://example.com) while the site sends requests to a.example.com (http://a.example.com), b.example.com (http://b.example.com), etc.

To maintain optimal performance, Transcend does not display activity data for pattern-based rules. These rules are designed to match multiple variations efficiently, often hundreds or thousands of individual items, and tracking activity for each match would significantly impact system performance. Rest assured, these rules continue to enforce consent properly for all matching items.

What this means for you:

  • Pattern-based rules appear in your inventory but show "N/A" for activity, encounters, and deployed sites.
  • These rules still enforce consent properly, lack of visible activity data does not affect regulation.
  • To verify if a pattern-based rule is still in use, check if other tracking technologies in your data flow from the same service show recent activity.

How to identify pattern-based rules:

  • Cookie rules containing wildcards or special characters (e.g., .*, *, ^, $).
  • Data flow rules matching URL patterns rather than specific endpoints or parent domains rather than specific subdomains.
  • In the data triage flow, open the column selector and enable the Type column to see the rule type.

Transcend's telemetry system uses sampling to monitor tracking activity across your digital properties. This approach optimizes performance at the cost of telemetry visibility on very low-traffic sites.

For web properties with very low traffic volumes compared to your other sites, activity data may appear less frequently or not at all. This is expected behavior and does not indicate an issue with consent enforcement.

What this means for you:

  • High and moderate-traffic sites will show consistent activity data.
  • Low-traffic properties may show intermittent or no activity data.
  • All tracking technologies are regulated regardless of activity visibility.
  • If you have specific low-traffic sites requiring enhanced monitoring, contact Transcend's support team.

Some users visit your website with browser settings or extensions that prevent telemetry data from being collected, even though their consent choices are still being enforced.

What can block telemetry:

  • Ad blocker extensions
  • Browser privacy settings (Do Not Track, strict tracking prevention, private browsing modes)

What this means for you:

  • Telemetry may show lower activity than your actual traffic, particularly for sites with privacy-conscious audiences.
  • This is expected and respects users' privacy choices.
  • Consent enforcement continues to work perfectly for these users. It happens client-side in their browser.

If you see a tracking technology without telemetry data and need to verify whether it's still in use on your sites, here are two reliable methods:

The most efficient way to verify activity is to look for other tracking technologies from the same vendor or service.

How to do this:

  1. Navigate to your Data Flow or Cookie in the Transcend dashboard
  2. Find the tracking technology that's missing telemetry data
  3. Note the Service name (e.g., "Google Analytics," "Facebook Pixel," "Amplitude")
  4. Search your inventory for other tracking technologies with the same service name
  5. Check if any of those related technologies show recent Activity or Last Seen dates

Why this works:

When a vendor's tracking system is active on your site, it typically creates multiple tracking technologies, multiple cookies, multiple network requests, or both. If you can see recent activity for some tracking technologies from a service, it's a strong indicator that related tracking technologies from that service are still active, including pattern-based rules.

If you're still uncertain after checking related tracking technologies, you can use the "delete and monitor" approach.

How to do this:

  1. Navigate to the tracking technology in your Triage or Approved inventory
  2. Delete the tracking technology from your inventory
  3. Publish your consent bundle
  4. Wait 24-48 hours
  5. Check your Triage queue

What to expect:

  • If still active: The tracking technology will automatically reappear in your Triage queue as telemetry detects it on your sites.
  • If truly inactive: The tracking technology will not reappear.

Consent enforcement work for all tracking technologies, regardless of telemetry visibility.

When you see "N/A" or missing data for Activity, Encounters, or Deployed Sites: The tracking technology is still being regulated based on user consent preferences.

  • You should still classify and approve these technologies in your inventory.
  • Transcend will enforce consent for these technologies across all your websites.
  • This does not mean the tracking technology is inactive or can be safely removed.

Need Help?

If you have questions about specific tracking technologies in your inventory or need assistance understanding your telemetry data, please reach out to support through the Transcend dashboard.