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Analytics from Mixpanel

Mixpanel and website tracking lawsuits

Mixpanel tracks what visitors do on your site and app so you can measure sign-ups and feature use.

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

What Suitcast knows about Mixpanel

Medium risk

Type
Analytics
Vendor
Mixpanel

Requests the scanner matches to it

  • cdn.mxpnl.com
  • api-js.mixpanel.com
  • api.mixpanel.com
  • .mixpanel.com
  • .mxpnl.com

The short answer

Mixpanel is an analytics script from Mixpanel. Suitcast rates its risk under the California Invasion of Privacy Act, CIPA, as medium, 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 describe it as assigning visitors an ID and sending their actions to a third party before consent.

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 Mixpanel firing before consent

Written for the person who runs the site, with the setting to change.
  1. Ask your developer to initialize Mixpanel only after the visitor clicks accept, using the opt-out-by-default setting.

  2. Remove it if it was set up for a project that ended.

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 cdn.mxpnl.com is matched to Mixpanel 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 Mixpanel keeps firing, the report says so.

Scanner rules and limits are on the methodology page.

Same type

Other analytics scripts the scanner checks

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

Questions owners ask

Whether Mixpanel is a problem, how to check your site, and where the counts come from.
Is having Mixpanel 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 Mixpanel only after consent, or removing it when it is not used, is what removes the pattern the complaints describe.
How do I know if Mixpanel 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 Mixpanel 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.

Does Mixpanel fire before consent on your site?

The free scan checks every request your pages make before the banner is answered, shows the millisecond Mixpanel 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.