How do I use the Sessions tab in Website Testing?

In this help, we'll discuss how to use the Sessions tab to:

  • Set regional privacy settings
  • Set page privacy
  • Set element privacy rules

Set regional privacy settings 

Due to GDPR, there are separate privacy options for visitors from EU and non-EU countries

For visitors located in the EU, recording of IP addresses, forms inputs, identity API, email addresses and numbers is turned off by default

For non-EU visitors, recording of all of the above is turned on by default

Uncheck store IP address / record form inputs / identify users via API / record on-page email addresses / record on-page numeric values to prevent the respective information from being stored.

In compliance with GDPR, if you allow recording any of the above personal information in the EU, the visitor's consent will be required in order for the relevant data be recorded by Website Testing

Set page privacy 

  • Website Testing records on all pages of your website/web app by default
  • Check only record on specified pages and click Define pages to manually set rules for the recorded pages.
  • You can set rules for included URLs and excluded URLs. For a page to be recorded it has to be fit at least one of the rules for being included and not fit any of the rules for being excluded
  • Click Add to add more rules
  • Use the URL validator below to verify whether a page URL will be recorded under the current conditions or not

There are severals ways in which a URL can be matched:

  • Simple URL match - ignores the query and hash
  • Exact URL match
  • URL starts with
  • URL ends with
  • URL contains
  • URL regular expression

Set element privacy rules 

  • Below regional privacy settings, click Advanced rules.
  • Here, you can define privacy rules for specific elements on your website by specifying their CSS selector.
  • Included elements override regional privacy settings and can allow for information that is generally not recorded (such as form inputs, email addresses or numbers) to be recorded in any element that matches the specified CSS selector.
  • Excluded elements can be used to disable recording of specific elements on your website. There are three options for excluding an element. Ignore events displays the element in recordings but disables recording of events such as typing and mouse clicks. Grey Box replaces the element in recordings with and empty grey box. Mask replaces all text within the element with asterisks (*).
  • Enter the css selector that should not be recorded (tags, ids, classes and attributes are all valid)
  • Write a note to label the element privacy rule with. Write a note that will make it easier to understand the selectors when revisiting them at later date
  • Click Add to add the selector as a new element privacy rule
  • Rules that prevent recording of payment details, password inputs and hidden inputs are present by default and (reasonably) cannot be disabled.
  • Enable Record this element with user consent to only exclude the element until the user has given their consent for recording form inputs.