Consent Mode settings and signals

Consent types

In both commands, the default and the update, the bar sends the four consent types that Consent Mode v2 requires. The middle column quotes Google's Consent mode overview.

The Necessary category controls no signal and is always on. The names of the two Google toggles are default texts; you can change them on the Texts tab.

The visitor's choice becomes signals like this:

The default (consent default command)

Google says to set a default value for each consent type you use “on every page of your site before any commands that send measurement data”, and that “if your consent code is called out of order, consent defaults won't work” (Set up consent mode on websites).

The Cookies správně bar sets the default as soon as its script loads:

gtag('consent', 'default', {
  ad_storage: 'denied',
  analytics_storage: 'denied',
  ad_user_data: 'denied',
  ad_personalization: 'denied',
  wait_for_update: 500
});

For the default to come before Google tags, insert the bar's script as the first script in the <head> of every page, above Google Tag Manager and gtag.js, and without the async and defer attributes. Google's troubleshooting guide explicitly says not to set default consent states asynchronously. The ready-made embed code is on the license's Implementation tab:

<script src="https://cookies-spravne.cz/static/cc_v2?key=YOUR_LICENSE_KEY"></script>

wait_for_update

Google: “specify wait_for_update along with a millisecond value to control how long to wait before data is sent.” It gives a consent management tool time to respond before Google tags send data.

The bar sends 500 ms. A returning visitor gets the update straight away, so tags do not wait. For a new visitor, tags wait at most 500 ms and then work with the denied default until the visitor chooses.

The update (consent update command)

Google says to “update the consent status as soon as a user interacts with your consent management solution.” Consent Mode does not store the choice itself; the bar does.

The bar sends an update:

• when the visitor clicks in the bar or saves the detailed settings,
• to a returning visitor as soon as the page loads, from the choice stored in the cc_cookie cookie,
• when the visitor later changes the choice through the Cookie settings link or the bar's badge. The page then reloads.

The order is always the same: first the update command, then the consentUpdate event, and only then does the bar run the scripts of the allowed categories, that is scripts from the Scripts tab and scripts marked type="text/plain". A Google tag the bar releases this way already works with the current consent state.

The consentUpdate event

With every update the bar also pushes this event to the dataLayer:

{
  event: 'consentUpdate',
  ad_storage: 'granted',
  analytics_storage: 'granted',
  ad_user_data: 'denied',
  ad_personalization: 'denied'
}

Use it as a Custom Event trigger in Google Tag Manager for tags without built-in consent checks. It is always sent, even with Consent Mode signals switched off: it is an ordinary event, not a Consent Mode command.

The Send Google Consent Mode signals switch

The switch is in the license Configuration, in the Implementation type box. It is on for every new license.

Switch it off only if you want to control Google tags yourself and block them until consent. The steps are in Turning Consent Mode off and going back to blocking tags. You also see the current state on the Implementation tab, in the Google Consent Mode box.

Implementation type

The Implementation type option in Configuration tells the bar who sets the default:

Options of the Google Tag Manager template

With GTM, the Cookies správně template from the Community Template Gallery sets the default. Fire it with the Consent Initialization – All Pages trigger, which according to Google is meant to “ensure that all consent settings are honored before any other triggers fire” (Tag Manager consent mode support). The template uses the setDefaultConsentState and updateConsentState APIs, as Google recommends for templates (Create a consent mode template).

Besides the four types above, the GTM template also sets the three other consent types GTM knows. The descriptions are Google's again:

The full setup is in How to install the cookie bar through Google Tag Manager.

Google documentation for this page

• Consent mode overview
• Set up consent mode on websites
• Create a consent mode template
• Tag Manager consent mode support