Are unique users tracked by IP?

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Based on the provided knowledge sources, Mixpanel does not track unique users by IP address. Instead, Mixpanel uses a distinct_id to uniquely identify users. Here's what we know about IP addresses and user tracking in Mixpanel:

1. IP addresses are primarily used for geolocation purposes, not for uniquely identifying users. Mixpanel's Ingestion API documentation mentions that the IP address can be used to compute a distinct_id using a hash function, but only if no distinct_id is provided and the 'ip' parameter is set to 1.

2. The distinct_id is the primary method for uniquely identifying users in Mixpanel. As stated in the Anatomy of an Event documentation, "The value of distinct_id will be treated as a string, and used to uniquely identify a user associated with your event."

3. Mixpanel does collect IP addresses for geolocation purposes, but it does not store them. According to the Default Properties documentation, "Mixpanel does not store the IP address and is discarded once geolocation data is derived."

4. For server-side implementations, using IP addresses for user identification can lead to inaccurate results. The Python SDK documentation warns that "As all server-side calls will likely originate from the same IP (that is, the IP of your server), this can have the unintended effect of setting the location of all of your users to the location of your data center."

In conclusion, while Mixpanel does use IP addresses for geolocation purposes, it does not use them as the primary method for tracking unique users. Instead, Mixpanel relies on the distinct_id property to identify unique users across events and profiles.

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