Checking if Sitecore Analytics is really working

Question

I am bit lost in trying to figure out how to opt out Sitecore Analytics for us to comply to GDPR thingy, and then come to doubt if Sitecore Analytics is really working on my Sitecore instance. If it doesn't then I don't need to do the opting out.

So here's what I found out:

1. Upon checking Sitecore.xDB config (from Website\App_Config\Include), both Xdb.Tracking.Enabled and Xdb.Enabled was set to true BUT is being overridden by the SitecoreSettings config. So in the end, Xdb.Enabled was set to false and Xdb.Tracking.Enabled was set to true. I've seen it from /sitecore/admin/showconfig.aspx. Weird thing is (I said weird just because I still have no idea WHY) when looking at my SitecoreSettings config, there's no node for that kind of setting. Only a setting for my LicenseFile.Interesting...

2. There was no xDB license installed. Upon checking it on Sitecore Controler Panel > Administration > Installed licenses.

3. Sitecore.Analytics config is NOT disabled

4. We don't have mongoDB

I don't understand the difference between xDB.Enabled and xDB.Tracking.Enabled. So I've read the documentation regarding Analytics (hopefully the link won't go dead): Disabling xd and xd tracking

Okay, so it says:

When you set Xdb.Tracking.Enabled to true and have xDB disabled:

1. Contacts cannot be identified immediately, and any data gathered from the contact is discarded at the end of the session.

2. You can use personalization rules for contact facets and segmentation.

3. IP Geolocation services are available.

4. Engagement plan processing occurs for the live session.

5. Contact repositories are available for the session, and outcomes that are triggered during the session are registered.

Okay based on my understanding (Please don't punish me if I'm wrong :/ ), everything about the visitor interactions will be saved BUT on session-based only, then it will be then save to mongoDB or sql if there's no mongoDB (?). So if that's that's the case, it still really does tracking on the site's visitors (anonymous visitors only on my case, because we don't have login feature for the site visitors, if my understanding is correct though)

So my question is: Is my investigation correct?

What I'm using is Sitecore 8.2

Answer 1

Following your analysis, the simple answer is your xDB is disabled. You will only be able to use the tracking mechanism but it will not get added to the xDB databases.

The Xdb.Enable setting is like a global flag to whether executes pipelines to save the captured data of a contact, interaction into the xdb.

So, as long as you have xDB.Enable as false, the Sitecore analytics, experience profile will be disabled