GDPR – for clients in the EU you’re likely getting to a point where you are sick of hearing about and dealing with the new regulation. For clients in the rest of the world, you’re likely starting to see some urgent messages and hearing frantic conversations about what this means for you.
For the full low-down, take a look at our recent articles covering all things GDPR and its effect on tags and data collection. Join us also for our upcoming webinars on all things GDPR by registering here.
In response to this new regulation, many sites are beginning to implement solutions requiring users to either explicitly or implicitly consent to cookie sharing and data collection on the site. As a result of these consent solutions, most Scanning and Crawling tools are unable to effectively reach sites and collect information on tags firing and data being passed.
Luckily for you, Tag Inspector now has new functionality to address this!
In the past few weeks, we have been working frantically to get out new functionality that allows our Scanner to carry the cookies necessary and express “consent” to be tracked. This means that we can still execute all tags on your site and deliver the information you have come to rely on. We are excited to announce this functionality is now live and applied across all accounts!
What this means for you
When you go into the User Interface and go through the process to kick off a new Scan, you will be greeted with a new option in Step 2, “Enable Cookie/Tracking Consent”.
By selecting this check-box, the Tag Inspector Scanner will complete the necessary action in order to “consent” to cookie collection and data collection. As a result, we are able to execute all tags on each page load and deliver the metrics and insights you have come to know and love within reporting.
Helpful Use Cases for the New Functionality
- If you wish to Scan a site that has an opt-in solution implemented but you still need to see all the tags that will execute once a user opts-in.
- In this scenario you may need to understand if there are any instances of piggybacking occuring that are outside the coverage of your Privacy Terms. Remember, just because a user opts in to cookie collection and tracking does not mean you have carte blanche on their data. The user still needs to be able to easily see to what platforms their data is going and have the ability to opt out of any tracking individually. If you don’t know all the tags loading on your site, this is going to be impossible. To accomplish this use case, just select the box and you can see the tags loading when a user has opted-in.
- Testing that tags are in fact being blocked when a user has not consented.
- To make sure your opt-in solution is in fact working as intended and no unauthorized tags are collecting user data for a user that has not opted-in you can run a Scan with this option not selected. This will have the effect of our Scanner going through and loading each page as if consent has not been granted. In this output, make sure you don’t see any tags executing that shouldn’t be and ensure compliance with the new GDPR consent regulations.
One note – as is indicated within the UI, this functionality is still in “Beta” as we are actively working to ensure all consent solutions are addressed. If you have any issues at all scanning your site as a result of the consent solution you are using – please reach out to the Tag Inspector team to let us know the solution you are using and site you are trying to Scan.
Stay safe out there in the new regulatory environment with our new Cookie Consent functionality and, as always, Happy Scanning!
To learn more about how we can help make the transition to being GDPR compliant, contact your Tag Inspector Consultant today.
