Geolocation settings¶

Geolocation settings control how BimBeau Privacy Analytics resolves country and city information for geolocation reports.

Where to find geolocation settings¶

In the WordPress admin area, open Statistics → Settings → Geolocation.

Geolocation source¶

The Geolocation source setting lets you choose how BimBeau Privacy Analytics resolves locations.

Local GeoLite database¶

Local database mode uses a GeoLite database stored in this WordPress installation for geolocation resolution. Country and city reports require installing the local GeoIP database from Geolocation settings. Local lookups do not send visitor IP addresses to BimBeau.

Use Update now for the first installation, when a previously installed database is missing or unreadable, or to refresh an operational database. When an administrator installs or updates the database, BimBeau Privacy Analytics contacts the official BimBeau GeoIP Database Service to fetch the manifest and database archive, verifies its SHA-256 checksum, decompresses the MMDB file, and replaces the local file only after validation succeeds.

Database storage and server requirements¶

The database is stored in wp-content/uploads/bbpa/geoip/. BimBeau Privacy Analytics adds .htaccess and index.php files to this directory so the database cannot be downloaded from the website on Apache and LiteSpeed servers. On nginx, add a rule that denies access to the private directories, for example:

location ~* /wp-content/uploads/bbpa/(geoip|tmp)/ {
    deny all;
}

The download is decompressed in small chunks, so the update does not need a large PHP memory limit. PHP must be able to write to the uploads directory directly. If WordPress is configured to write files through FTP or SSH (FS_METHOD), the update stops before downloading and explains how to fix the configuration: make the uploads directory writable by PHP, or define FS_METHOD as direct in wp-config.php.

GeoLite2 attribution¶

This product includes GeoLite2 data created by MaxMind, available from https://www.maxmind.com. The GeoLite2 data is subject to the GeoLite2 End User License Agreement.

Automatic database updates¶

The Automatic updates setting uses Manual updates only by default. Administrators can update the database manually or explicitly choose an automatic update frequency. In manual-only mode, the plugin does not schedule GeoIP database downloads, retries, or manifest requests.

Available frequencies:

• Manual updates only;
• Every 15 days;
• Every 30 days;
• Every 45 days;
• Every 60 days;
• Every 3 months;
• Every 6 months;
• Every year;
• Every 2 years.

Update now¶

The Manual update section has a single Update now button. Use it to request an immediate local GeoIP database install or update. This is useful during first setup, after correcting a failed update condition, or when you want to refresh the database before the next scheduled check.

Database status fields¶

When local database mode is active, the GeoIP database status section shows:

The collapsible Technical details section adds:

Temporary local database unavailability should not block the rest of BimBeau Privacy Analytics. When an update attempt fails, an existing readable local database remains available for lookups while the status fields report the failed attempt.

MaxMind API mode¶

When MaxMind API is selected, the screen asks for:

• MaxMind Account ID;
• MaxMind License Key.

Use Test MaxMind connection to check whether the configured credentials can be used.

Once saved, the license key is never displayed again, even to administrators. The MaxMind License Key field stays empty while a key is saved: leave it empty to keep the saved key, type a new key to replace it, or select Remove the saved license key and save to delete it. Test MaxMind connection uses the saved key when the field is empty.

To protect your MaxMind quota, the answer for a visitor is reused for a few hours, lookups pause for a while after an authentication, quota or availability error (saving new credentials ends the pause), and the number of lookups per minute is capped. Visits recorded while lookups are paused have no country.

Accuracy limits¶

Geolocation depends on available technical signals and the selected data source.

Country-level trends are usually more reliable than city-level details. City-level data can be incomplete, approximate, or unavailable for some visits.

Use geolocation to understand audience distribution, campaign reach, and broad regional trends rather than exact visitor locations.

Related report¶

Open Geolocation to review country and city trends.

Related settings¶

• Tracking and privacy
• Data retention

First configuration assistant¶

The assistant can trigger one explicit local GeoIP database download. This action does not schedule automatic updates. Continuing without local geolocation opens a confirmation and leaves core traffic measurements available without geographic information.