Product Analytics & Session Replay · Updated 2026
PostHog auto-captures clicks and inputs and can record full session replays alongside product analytics. Using it is perfectly legal — but running PostHog before a visitor consents is what creates exposure under California's wiretapping law.
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California's Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), Penal Code § 631, prohibits intercepting communications without all-party consent. Since 2022, a wave of plaintiff-firm litigation has applied this decades-old wiretapping statute to website session-replay, chat, and pixel tools — arguing that capturing a visitor's clicks, keystrokes, and form input without consent is an unlawful interception. PostHog's autocapture and session replay record clicks, inputs, and full sessions — actionable under CIPA when enabled before consent.
Statutory damages run up to $5,000 per violation, and plaintiffs argue each affected visitor session is a separate count — which is why even small sites receive demand letters.
In a landmark action, the California Attorney General reached a $1.2M settlement with Sephora over its use of tracking technologies without honoring consumer privacy choices. Private CIPA suits over session-replay and chat tools have named retailers, healthcare providers, and SaaS companies alike. The common thread: trackers firing before the visitor had any chance to opt out.
posthog.init('YOUR_KEY', {
api_host: 'https://us.i.posthog.com',
opt_out_capturing_by_default: true, // no capture until opt-in
disable_session_recording: true,
session_recording: { maskAllInputs: true },
});
// After the visitor accepts:
cmp.onConsent('analytics', () => { posthog.opt_in_capturing(); posthog.startSessionRecording(); });
PostHog's official privacy/consent documentation →
RegSentry runs a real browser against your site, watches exactly when PostHog (and every other tracker) first contacts a third-party server, and captures the evidence — including whether it intercepts keystrokes typed into your forms.
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