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Google Consent Mode – Is your website compliant?

Privacy and data protection has been the focus of Google’s most recent rollout, Consent Mode V2. But is your website compliant?

 
13/05/2024
Ensuring that your website fits the bill for this new update is so intrinsic to your organisation showing your users that you take privacy and data protection seriously.
Carly Magnavacca-Ptaszek Performance Manager

If your organisation is utilising Google services, it’s very likely that you’ve received emails from Google regarding Consent Mode V2.

What is Consent Mode?

Consent mode lets you communicate your users’ cookie or app identifier consent status to Google.

It does this by being reactive to how a user interacts with your website’s cookie banner and then dynamically adapts the behaviour of any third-party tags on your site that create or read cookies.

This ensures that your website’s use of cookies and visitor data is compliant with data privacy regulations, such as GDPR.

Unlike its predecessor, Consent Mode V1, which was optional for business to implement, V2 is mandatory.

As a result if your website isn’t compliant, your performance data will be at risk.

What are the risks of not implementing V2?

If you do not have Consent Mode V2 in place, your performance tracking data from platforms such as Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager etc, won’t be accurate.

You could even be at risk of potential legal issues from non-compliance for data protection regulations such as GDPR.

How do I implement Consent Mode V2 on my website?

In order to enable Consent Mode v2 on your website, you’ll need to have a cookie banner in place.

The cookie banner should meet strict requirements to ensure compliance, such as:

  • The opt-out option must be as prominent as the opt-in and should be immediately visible to your users.
  • The cookie banner should direct users to information which stipulates exactly what data is being tracked, such as a Cookie or Privacy Policy.
  • The cookie banner should be able to store user consent.

Screenshot of a Consent mode v2 compliant cookie notice

Whilst this may sound like a headache, there are cookie consent solutions that are available to take the headache away.

Our preferred solution is CookieYes and as an agency partner, we’re able to create custom cookie banners that achieve compliance efficiently on our WordPress websites.

If you’re also utilising a cookie management platform, make sure to check that the platform is compliant with Consent Mode v2 and whether any manual intervention is required to make this feature fully compliant.

Our takeaways

Ultimately, the importance of ensuring that your website fits the bill for this new update is so intrinsic to your organisation showing your users that you take privacy and data protection seriously.

It’s also key to ensuring that you’re able to continue to collect valuable performance data that can provide actionable insight into your organisation’s digital experiences

And if you’re still unsure as to whether your website is Consent Mode V2 compliant, we’re happy to help.

Just fill out the form below for a FREE compliance audit.

 

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