Opt out of tracking with DNP

DNP stands for "Do Not Process", which is a setting that you can use to prevent Pendo from tracking particular visitors or accounts in your subscription. You can opt visitors and accounts out of Pendo tracking with DNP in two ways:

• Through the Pendo UI
• Using our metadata endpoint

With DNP, event history remains viewable in Pendo. If you want to erase past data, you can do this programmatically using our visitor and account deletion endpoints, as described in Bulk delete accounts and visitors through the API,  or by sending a request to Pendo Support, as outlined in our General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) article. If you don't request a full GDPR-delete, past data is still accessible in the Pendo UI.

How it works

After flagging a visitor or account as DNP, future events are no longer recorded for that visitor or account, and guides are no longer displayed to that visitor or account. This setting is used:

• As part of our GDPR-delete process. For information, see General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
• On its own to prevent future events from a visitor or account being recorded, without deleting past event data.

Opting out of tracking with DNP is different from using an exclude list. Exclude lists involve filtering out data from specific visitors and accounts. Pendo still collects and stores this data, but Pendo users don't see that data in their analytics unless they filter by Excluded Accounts & Visitors. If you remove an account or visitor from an exclude list, their data becomes available. For more information about exclude lists in Pendo, see Exclude and Include Lists.

With DNP, Pendo doesn't collect or store the data at all, which means you can't access that data later. This is a GDPR-compliant method of ensuring that we stop capturing and using data from a visitor or account for any and all purposes. To further comply with GDPR, you can delete all data for a visitor or account as well as turning on DNP. For more information, see Bulk delete accounts and visitors through the API.

Turn on DNP through the Pendo UI

You can opt visitors and accounts out of data tracking in Pendo through the details page of the visitor or account in the Pendo UI.

From the Visitor page

If you want to opt individual visitors out of Pendo tracking:

1. In your Pendo subscription, go to People > Visitors.
2. Find and select the visitor you want to opt out of Pendo tracking.
3. Under Details, select the Do Not Process checkbox.

From the Account page

If you want to opt individual accounts out of Pendo tracking:

1. In your Pendo subscription, go to People > Accounts.
2. Find and select the account you want to opt out of Pendo tracking.
3. Under Details, select the Do Not Process checkbox.

Turn on DNP using the metadata endpoint

You can use our API to programmatically turn on doNotProcess for a visitor or account by making an API call to the following endpoint and passing a value true: https://app.pendo.io/api/v1/metadata/:kind/pendo/value/:id/donotprocess

This is part of our metadata endpoint, which is used to set metadata values for visitors and accounts in Pendo. 

Turn off DNP using the metadata endpoint

You can use our API to programmatically turn off doNotProcess for a visitor or account by making an API call to the following endpoint and passing a value false: https://app.pendo.io/api/v1/metadata/:kind/pendo/value/:id/donotprocess

This is part of our metadata endpoint, which is used to set metadata values for visitors and accounts in Pendo. 

Opt out visitors using a Pendo guide

You can display an opt-out message to an end-user, process their poll response, and set a flag to stop processing that visitor's events:

1. Create a Pendo guide to capture a list of users who want to opt out of tracking. Include an opt-out option using a Yes|No poll building block. Only present this guide to identified visitors.
2. Send a Pendo webhook to a destination, such as Zapier, with the visitor's poll responses so that you can capture and process the results of your guide.
3. Set the doNotProcess flag by sending an API call to the metadata endpoint. This processes the webhooks to identify whether a visitor chooses to opt out of Pendo tracking.

The DNP setting takes effect after a Page-load event.

Retrieve DNP records

You can programmatically retrieve DNP records by sending an API call to the aggregation endpoint using either of following:

• Use the doNotProcessVisitors aggregation source to return events created by visitors that are marked as doNotProcess.
• Use doNotProcessAccounts aggregation source to return events created by accounts that are marked as doNotProcess.