Microsoft Clarity

Clarity is Microsoft’s free behaviour-analytics tool: heatmaps of where visitors tap and scroll, and recordings of real visits. Add your own Clarity project to permacon.studio and see how homeowners and professionals move through your visualizer — where they hesitate, what they skip, where they drop off.

What it costs your visitors

Clarity has no server-side version — it is a script in the visitor’s browser. You choose how it runs with the Set cookies switch on the Clarity card:

	Set cookies off (default)	Set cookies on
Cookies on the visitor’s device	None — one identifier per page view	Clarity’s first-party cookies (`_clck` for a year, `_clsk` for a day) and Microsoft’s own
Consent notice	None	A small Allow / Decline bar — see below
Heatmaps	Yes	Yes
Recordings	Single pages	Whole visits across pages
Journeys and funnels across pages	No	Yes
Who is recorded	Every visitor, except browsers that send Global Privacy Control — and, when another tool shows the notice, visitors who choose Decline on it	Visitors who allowed it (or, outside the consent zone, did not opt out)

Either way it is still measurement: the privacy page lists Clarity, and a browser that sends the Global Privacy Control signal is never recorded (Clarity’s script does not start). Since 31 October 2025 Clarity also enforces consent itself for visitors from the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, based on their IP address.

If Google, Meta or TikTok also runs in the browser, their notice decides for Clarity too: a visitor who chooses Decline on it is not recorded by Clarity either, even with cookies off.

Our advice: start with cookies off. You get heatmaps and single-page recordings, and your visitors never see a notice. Turn cookies on only if you need to follow whole visits across pages.

Set it up

Create a Clarity projectSign in at clarity.microsoft.com, press New project, name it and enter your site: https://permacon.studio. Use a project of your own — Clarity’s terms do not allow one project to be shared across other companies’ sites.
Copy the Project IDIn the project, open Settings → Overview. The Project ID is a short code of letters and digits (for example 3t0wlogvdz). Ignore the tracking code snippet — we load the script for you.
Paste it in the portalSign in at permacon.studio/portal as an owner or admin and open Developers → Analytics & pixels. On the Microsoft Clarity card choose In the browser, paste the Project ID and press Save changes.
Decide on cookiesLeave Set cookies off for the cookieless mode. Switching it on first shows a warning that explains the consent notice it adds — read it, then choose Turn on anyway or Cancel.
Match your Clarity project settingsWith cookies off, also switch Clarity’s own cookie setting off (Settings → Setup, the Cookies option under the advanced settings) — otherwise Clarity may still set its cookies for a moment. Keep masking on Balanced or Strict (below).
Check itPress Check next to the Project ID. We ask Microsoft about the ID you typed (the saved one when the field is empty): you are told when no project has that ID, and warned when the project still sets cookies while Set cookies is off. Checking does not save anything — press Save changes to put the ID live. Then open your visualizer and make a design — Clarity can take up to two hours to show the first data.

The Project ID is letters and digits only (6–16 characters); we store it in lowercase, which is how Clarity issues it.

Where it runs

Only on the pages your customers use: the home page and dashboard, the design result page and shared designs. Never on an in-store kiosk or the phone photo uploader a shopper opens from its QR code, nor on the portal, checkout, the legal pages or these developer pages.

What is hidden from recordings, and why

Recordings would otherwise show your customers’ homes. Every surface that shows a customer’s photo or design — the photo upload preview, the design canvas, the result and before/after views and shared designs — is marked data-clarity-mask="true", so Clarity blanks it whatever your project settings. Canvas drawings are never captured by Clarity, and Clarity always masks what people type into form fields.

Keep masking on Balanced or Strict in Clarity (Settings → Masking). Balanced hides numbers and email addresses; Strict hides all text and images. Do not switch masking off.
We never identify visitors to Clarity — no names, emails or account ids are sent, and recordings stay anonymous.
Page addresses are recorded. Clarity receives the address of each page, including a shared design’s link. Treat recordings as confidential and limit who can open your Clarity project.
Recordings are kept 30 days by Clarity. If you want your own team’s visits left out, use Clarity’s IP blocking setting.

What you will see — and what you will not

Heatmaps and recordings of the pages above, from the visitors Clarity is allowed to measure.
Custom events you can filter recordings by: signup, lead, purchase and design_completed — a new account, a project form sent, a design pack bought, a finished design. They carry no personal data.
Nobody who declined, nobody whose browser sends Global Privacy Control, and — with cookies on — nobody in the consent zone before they choose Allow.
No customer photos or designs (masked) and no identities.

The consent notice (cookies on only)

With Set cookies on, the pages above show a compact bar at the bottom of the screen. It never covers the page and nothing from Clarity loads until the visitor chooses:

Permacon uses Microsoft Clarity to see how the studio is used. Allow it? — Privacy

Two equal buttons: Decline · Allow

Who sees it: by default only visitors from the European Economic Area, the UK, Switzerland and Quebec — and visitors whose location we cannot tell. Everywhere else Clarity runs without a bar, and a Privacy choices link in the footer lets anyone opt out. On the Consent notice card you can switch to Ask everyone instead.
Both buttons are equal — declining is as easy as allowing. Ignoring the bar means nothing loads.
The choice is remembered for 180 days in the visitor’s browser, then the bar asks again. Adding or changing a tag that needs the notice also asks again.
Global Privacy Control counts as Decline: no bar, nothing loads, and the Privacy choices panel says the opt-out was honoured.

Running Google, Meta or TikTok in the browser too? The same single bar covers all of them — see Ad pixels & conversions.

Your privacy policy

Clarity’s terms ask you to tell visitors that Microsoft collects data through it, to offer a way to opt out, and to link Microsoft’s privacy statement (privacy.microsoft.com/privacystatement). The privacy page on permacon.studio updates itself when you turn Clarity on. If you use your own legal text instead, add Clarity there yourself. Clarity’s terms also rule out sites aimed at children under 18 and sites about health, finance or government services.

Session recordings have drawn wiretap lawsuits in the United States; keeping masking on is the best protection. This page is a summary of research, not legal advice — if your lawyer wants every visitor asked, choose Ask everyone.

Questions: [email protected]. The Permacon Design Studio is operated by StoneSwap Inc. · Hamilton, Ontario. Microsoft and Clarity are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.