Cookie consent banner
A consent banner (cookie banner, CMP) is the interface element that asks the visitor's permission before writing non-essential cookies and starting trackers. A working banner satisfies three conditions: only strictly necessary cookies are written before any interaction; Accept and Reject are equal in size and prominence; and the visitor's choice is stored and genuinely controls whether counters and pixels load.
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What may load before consent
Strictly necessary cookies need no consent — the ones without which the function the visitor requested cannot work: the session (PHPSESSID), CSRF tokens, the cart, the chosen language. Everything serving analytics, advertising or personalisation — Metrika, ad pixels, A/B tests — requires consent before the first cookie is written.
Signs of a broken banner
- Decorative banner: trackers load on page open regardless of the buttons — the most common case
- No refusal: only Accept or OK; the sole way to refuse is closing the tab
- Unequal buttons: a bright Accept and a grey small-print "settings" link
- Pre-ticked categories: analytics and marketing checkboxes enabled in advance
- Refusal not stored: the next page asks again while trackers already loaded
How to test your banner
Three incognito scenarios: touch nothing, accept, reject. In each, inspect which cookies were written and which third-party requests left (DevTools → Network). If the "no action" and "accept" lists match, the banner is decorative. The compliance scanner runs all three scenarios automatically across several pages and shows the before/after consent contrast with the specific tracker domains.
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Why teams trust us
How it works
Enter your site URL
The scanner opens pages in a browser
Get a grade and a fix list
Why check your site for privacy compliance?
Regulators fine sites for processing personal data without consent — and a site starts processing earlier than it seems: analytics, pixels and widgets write cookies the moment the page loads. The scanner shows the auditor's view: what leaves for third parties before consent, whether the banner works, and whether forms collect data correctly.
Real Browser
Three sessions per page: no action, banner accepted, banner rejected.
Trackers and Jurisdiction
Service catalogue: who receives visitor data and in which country.
Policy at Collection Point
The policy link and consent element are checked next to the form, not in the footer.
Signed PDF
Report with an HMAC integrity stamp — hand it to your lawyer or contractor.
Who uses this
Business
preparing for an audit
Lawyers
technical facts for an opinion
Web Studios
client site handover
DevOps
consent regression monitoring
Common Mistakes
Best Practices
Monitor compliance automatically
Scheduled re-checks with an alert when pre-consent trackers appear on your site.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is a banner mandatory at all?
A banner is a means of obtaining consent before processing, not an end in itself. If a site writes no non-essential cookies and loads no trackers, it needs no banner. The moment a counter appears, a consent mechanism is needed.
Is an off-the-shelf CMP enough?
Yes for the interface part — Cookiebot, CookieYes, Usercentrics and peers. But installing a CMP does not by itself put your counters under its control: their initialisation still has to be wired to the consent callback.
What counts as an equal Reject?
A Reject button of the same size, on the same level, with the same prominence as Accept. Consent obtained through an obstructed refusal does not read as voluntary in an audit.
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