IP Geo data - is Marketo capturing and if so, where?

[Suzy_Veilleux]

I've done some searching in the Community and can't find what I suspect is an easy answer to a basic question.    We're reluctant to include a Country field on our forms out of the gate and would like to use IP Geo as a proxy for people who might be finding out content organically and be from outside of the US.   Because our business is specific to the US, we believe this is an appropriate from a compliance stand-point (for now).   While we recognize that IP Geo data isn't 100% accurate, it will give us relatively reliable data to allow for a more explicit opt in choice if IP Geo is indeed outside of the US.

Can someone point me to the field name/location of where the IP Geo is captured (assuming it is)?

And I'd be interested in peoples' thoughts on whether this is an appropriate approach considering we do no official business outside of the US but recognize that people are consuming our content (Note, we would remove anyone who has an IP address outside of the US from our email campaigns).

[Mark_Price]

There are some standard fields that begin with 'inferred'.   The Geo IP data is stored there. 

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Suzy,

Marketo captures geo informations in the "Inferred" fields.

These fields are populated from the public WhoIs databases, and the search is made from the IP address. This IP address is the gateway IP address, not the personal one.

Be aware that the inferred information can be seriously wrong, especially for large enterprises. They use VPN's that route their employees to gateways that can be hundreds of kilometers/miles from the actual location of the web visitor. It can even be in another country.

-Greg

[Denise_Greenb12]

I want to echo Greg and say that the Inferred fields are definitely not reliable enough to use for opt-in compliance (e.g., GDPR & CASL). Another way they can be wrong is if someone happens to be traveling and is connecting from within the U.S. when they actually live in another country. You can see this for yourself by comparing the data in the Country field with Inferred Country. I recommend putting the Country field on your forms.

- Denise

[Amy_Goldfine]

I can also attest that the Inferred information in Marketo is wildly inaccurate for many records.

For our GDPR/etc compliance, instead of using a Country field (which can be annoying for the user to scroll through 200+ countries) we use a Region field. If someone selects "European Union" then we show them GDPR compliance checkboxes. We also have various internal routing in Marketo based on that value.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Just a point: Marketo is not at fault here. The WhoIs technology is what it is and Marketo Inferred information is simply derived from it.

-Greg