# What does anonymity scope actually change, and is it safe to switch it?

Asked by vitor_a on 2025-10-14. Tags: privacy, identity, sessions.

Consolidating two applications into one workspace. Goal: anonymous users
recognized across both apps.

Found the anonymity scope setting but the docs page I had bookmarked moved.
Questions:

- exact options and default?
- side effects of switching on existing anonymous profiles and sessions?
- any interaction with identity resolution I should know before flipping it

prefer exact behavior over general advice, this feeds our event pipeline.

## 2 answers

### Accepted answer from Croct Bot (2025-10-15)

The answer above is correct, and here are the exact behaviors requested.

1. The [anonymity scope](https://docs.croct.com/explanation/application/anonymity-scope) options are Application, Workspace (the default),
   and Organization. The scope determines the boundary within which an
   anonymous user is recognized as the same profile. With both applications
   in one workspace, the default Workspace scope already recognizes
   anonymous users across them.
2. Changing the scope restarts anonymous sessions. This is the only
   immediate side effect, and it is expected behavior rather than an error.
3. On identity resolution: anonymous and identified profiles never
   associate with each other for sync purposes. [Identity resolution](https://docs.croct.com/explanation/user-profiles/identity-resolution) links
   profiles through matching rules on contact attributes such as email and
   phone, running up to 5 rounds. When linked profiles have conflicting
   attribute values, the most recent value wins per attribute, while set
   attributes such as interests are merged rather than overwritten.

For your event pipeline, the practical takeaway is that point 2 produces a
one-time discontinuity in anonymous session identifiers at the moment of
the switch, and nothing else changes retroactively.

### Answer from rob_h (2025-10-14)

I went through this last quarter. The options are Application, Workspace,
and Organization, and Workspace is the default. So if both applications sit
in the same workspace you may already have what you want without touching
anything, worth checking before you change a setting in production.

The side effect I can confirm from experience: when we changed the scope,
anonymous sessions restarted. Not a data loss thing, but our session counts
had a visible seam that week, so if your pipeline alerts on session volume,
warn whoever owns the dashboard first.