Drift

Overview

Drift is a conversational marketing and sales platform founded in 2015 that pioneered the "conversational marketing" category. It combines AI-powered chatbots, live chat, and automated playbooks to engage website visitors in real time and route qualified leads to sales representatives. Drift is widely deployed on B2B SaaS, technology, and professional services websites. Acquired by Salesloft in 2023, Drift's technology powers real-time pipeline generation by identifying and personalising the website experience for target accounts.

What This Script Does

The Drift script loads from js.driftt.com (Drift's primary JavaScript CDN) and renders a persistent chat bubble in the lower corner of every page. On activation, it establishes a WebSocket connection to Drift's messaging infrastructure for real-time chat routing.

Cookies and identifiers set:

• driftt_aid — Anonymous visitor identifier; first-party cookie set on the host domain via document.cookie; expiry 2 years. Used to recognise returning visitors and link sessions to known contact records.
• driftt_sid — Session identifier scoped to the current browsing session; expires at session end.
• driftt_eid — Email-linked identifier set when a visitor is identified through form submission or email click; used to merge anonymous and known contact profiles; expiry up to 2 years.
• Local storage key drift_campaign — Stores active campaign assignment to ensure consistent chatbot playbook delivery across pages.

Script filenames and CDN: api.js loaded from js.driftt.com; chat assets from widget.drift.com; API calls to customer.io/drift for CRM sync and events.drift.com for behavioural event streaming.

Per-session data collected:

• Full browsing path on the host site (all pages visited, time on each)
• Referral source and UTM parameters
• Company identity via IP-based firmographic lookup (Clearbit/6sense enrichment)
• Account-based marketing segment assignment (target account matching)
• Chat transcript and conversation data
• Form field values when visitor is identified
• CRM sync events to Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo

Behavioural triggers: Drift playbooks fire based on rules including visit count, page URL, time on page, scroll depth, referral campaign, and target account membership — all processed client-side using the persistent driftt_aid cookie.

Consent & Compliance

Drift scripts are classified under functional and marketing categories. The live chat widget serves a functional communication purpose, but Drift's default configuration includes visitor identification, cross-session tracking, and account-based marketing automation — all of which are marketing activities. Under GDPR Article 6, the visitor identification cookies (driftt_aid, driftt_eid) and behavioural tracking require explicit prior consent, as they process personal data for marketing purposes that go beyond the strictly necessary threshold. IAB TCF Purpose 1 (Store/access device) and Purpose 8 (Measure content performance) are implicated by Drift's default operation. Under ePrivacy, the persistent driftt_aid cookie requires opt-in. Under CCPA/CPRA, the collection of browsing behaviour, firmographic enrichment, and CRM sync constitutes processing of personal information for marketing that must be disclosed and subject to opt-out rights.

Should You Block This Without Consent?

Conditional. Drift combines legitimate functional live chat with marketing-oriented visitor identification and sales automation. If used purely for reactive customer support (chat widget with no persistent tracking cookies), it could be classified as functional. However, Drift's default configuration enables visitor tracking, account-based targeting, and CRM integration from the first page load — all of which require consent. Block by default; load only after the visitor grants functional or marketing consent.