New Relic - Browser Monitoring & Privacy Classification

Overview

New Relic is an observability platform used by engineering and DevOps teams for application performance monitoring (APM), infrastructure monitoring, and real-user monitoring (RUM). The New Relic Browser Agent is injected into web pages to collect client-side performance telemetry including page load timing, JavaScript error rates, AJAX call latency, and Core Web Vitals. This data flows into New Relic's observability platform for dashboards, alerting, and incident response — it is purely an operational tool with no advertising or behavioral profiling function.

What This Script Does

Browser Agent Installation

Injected into pages either via a <script> tag in <head> or via New Relic's APM agent server-side injection
Script loader: https://js-agent.newrelic.com/nr-<version>.min.js (served from New Relic's CDN)
Also delivered via bam.nr-data.net for some configurations

Performance Data Collection

Page load timing: captures DNS lookup, TCP connection, TTFB (Time to First Byte), DOM interactive, and window load event timings using the Navigation Timing API
Core Web Vitals: measures LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), FID/INP (Interaction to Next Paint), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)
Resource timing: monitors load times and transfer sizes for every script, stylesheet, image, and font on the page
AJAX monitoring: intercepts XMLHttpRequest and fetch calls to measure latency, payload sizes, and error rates for API calls
JavaScript errors: captures uncaught exceptions and promise rejections with full stack traces for debugging

Session Traces

Records a timeline of browser events (resource loads, AJAX calls, user interactions) for sessions that are sampled for trace collection
Session traces help correlate a specific user's experience with backend performance issues
Sampling rate is configurable; not all sessions are traced

Data Transmitted

Performance metrics batched and sent to bam.nr-data.net (New Relic's data ingest endpoint)
Payloads include: page URL, timing data, error messages, AJAX endpoint URLs and statuses
IP addresses are received by New Relic's ingest infrastructure but are typically not stored in the final telemetry record
No cookies are set by the New Relic Browser Agent for tracking purposes

What New Relic Does NOT Collect

No advertising identifiers or cross-site tracking cookies
No behavioral profiles or retargeting data
No form field values or user input content (by default)
No personally identifiable information beyond what is incidentally included in page URLs

Consent & Compliance

Consent category: Analytics (performance monitoring)

New Relic Browser Agent collects technical performance telemetry for operational purposes. Under GDPR, the processing of performance data (including IP addresses that pass through New Relic's ingest) requires a lawful basis — legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f)) is appropriate for site reliability monitoring. The ePrivacy Directive is not clearly triggered since the agent does not set cookies. Under CCPA, performance telemetry collected for operational purposes does not constitute a sale or sharing of personal information. New Relic is US-based and participates in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

Should You Block This Without Consent?

No. New Relic is a performance monitoring tool that collects purely technical telemetry for operational reliability. It sets no tracking cookies, performs no behavioral profiling, and has no advertising function. It is appropriately classified as strictly necessary analytics supporting site operations.

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Consent Categories

Analytics

Also Known As

new relic browser agentnew relic GDPRnew relic cookiesRUM performance monitoring privacynew relic APM consentNR1

Industries

Computers Electronics and TechnologyProgramming and Developer Software

Tracked Domains (2)

nr-data.netAnalytics

newrelic.comAnalytics

Frequently Asked Questions

Does New Relic require user consent?

No. New Relic Browser Agent is a performance monitoring tool for engineering teams. It collects technical telemetry — page load timings, JavaScript errors, AJAX latency — not behavioral data. It sets no tracking cookies, so the ePrivacy Directive is not triggered. Legitimate interest suffices under GDPR.

What data does the New Relic browser agent transmit?

The agent sends page load timing metrics, Core Web Vitals, resource load times, uncaught JavaScript errors with stack traces, and AJAX call latency data to bam.nr-data.net. IP addresses pass through ingest infrastructure but are not retained in telemetry records. No form values or user content is collected.

How does ConsentStack categorize New Relic?

ConsentStack classifies New Relic as analytics — specifically operational performance monitoring. It does not appear in consent banners by default. ConsentStack will not block it, as it qualifies as strictly necessary site reliability tooling with no advertising or profiling function.