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Chat widget from Intercom

Intercom Messenger and website tracking lawsuits

Intercom is a chat bubble that lets visitors message your team and also tracks which pages they view.

Free, about a minute, no signup for your score.

What Suitcast knows about Intercom Messenger

High risk

Type
Chat widget
Vendor
Intercom

Requests the scanner matches to it

  • widget.intercom.io
  • js.intercomcdn.com
  • api-iam.intercom.io
  • .intercom.io
  • .intercomcdn.com

The short answer

Intercom Messenger is a chat widget from Intercom. Suitcast rates its risk under the California Invasion of Privacy Act, CIPA, as high, because complaints describe scripts like it recording visitors before they consent. The fix is to load it only after a visitor accepts, or to remove it when it is not used.

Why complaints name it

Complaints under California's privacy law say chat tools like this record and store conversations, and share visitor data with the chat vendor, without telling the visitor first.

The act allows $5,000 per violation, which is why firms look for scripts that run the moment a page opens.

The fix

How to stop Intercom Messenger firing before consent

Written for the person who runs the site, with the setting to change.

  1. Ask your developer to load the messenger only after the visitor accepts your cookie banner, and add a short notice inside the chat window that conversations are saved.

  2. If you no longer staff the chat, remove the widget.

How the scan checks this

  1. Loads your pages like a first visit. A real browser, nothing clicked, nothing accepted.
  2. Checks every request before the banner is answered. A request to widget.intercom.io is matched to Intercom Messenger and recorded with the millisecond it fired.
  3. Clicks reject and watches again. When the banner has a reject button, the scan presses it; if Intercom Messenger keeps firing, the report says so.

Scanner rules and limits are on the methodology page.

Same type

Other chat widgets the scanner checks

Scripts of the same kind carry the same pattern in complaints, and the same fix.

Questions owners ask

Whether Intercom Messenger is a problem, how to check your site, and where the counts come from.
Is having Intercom Messenger on my site illegal?
No. The complaints do not claim the script is illegal; they claim it recorded a visitor before the visitor consented, or kept recording after the visitor declined. Loading Intercom Messenger only after consent, or removing it when it is not used, is what removes the pattern the complaints describe.
How do I know if Intercom Messenger fires before consent on my site?
Run the free scan. It loads your pages without clicking anything and checks every request that leaves the browser against its tracker catalog, recording the millisecond each match fired. If Intercom Messenger appears, it fired before consent. When your banner has a reject button, the scan clicks it and reports whether the script kept firing.
Where do the case counts on this page come from?
From the complaint text of verified California Invasion of Privacy Act filings. When a complaint names this script, the case is linked to it. Complaints that are not yet available in the public record are not counted, so the number is a floor.

Keep going

Does Intercom Messenger fire before consent on your site?

The free scan checks every request your pages make before the banner is answered, shows the millisecond Intercom Messenger fired, and whether it kept firing after reject.

Free, about a minute, no signup for your score.

Suitcast identifies risk indicators. It is not legal advice and does not determine compliance.