There are a couple of ways we can use to check that you’ve implemented your Cookie Banner script correctly.
The way the cookie banner works is that it controls the execution of the script tags of your website. This is important as when tags are triggered, so are network requests to third parties that may contain personal data.
At this point, if personal data is sent (and remember an IP Address is personal) data without user consent, we’ve violated the ePrivacy directive. So to avoid this we need to make sure that cookies and other technologies are blocked from our website.
Method 1: Using the Ghostery extension
Ghostery is a browser extension that will block unwanted tools and third parties from gathering information from you. It will also tell you if the website you are visiting has tracking cookies and technologies.
Install the Ghostery extension which can be found here.
Open an incognito window and disable the
Block third-party cookiessection.
Go to the site where you’ve installed your cookie banner. Before you accept or reject cookies open the Ghostery extension. If there are any tracking technologies, you will see it here:
You should see 0 trackers here or just tools and third parties that are categorised as Necessary. You can see and update the tools that are categorised as necessary here.
If you want to check that the cookie banner is working correctly press
Accept Alland open Ghostery again.
👨🏫 Pro tip: if you want to start from the beginning you will need to close all your incognito windows and start again or delete the data stored in cache for that website (see step 3 of the next section for that)
Method 2: Using the browser
Check at the cookies loaded before giving consent
Open an incognito window and disable the
Block third-party cookiessection.
Go to the site where you’ve installed your cookie banner.
See the gif below or
Right Mouse Click > Inspect > Application > Check including third-party cookies > Clear Site DataRight click on the refresh button and press
Hard Reload
Now click on the lock next to your browser URL and select cookies.
You will be able to see the cookies that have been placed on your browser. You should only see cookies here from tools and third parties that are categorised as Necessary. You can see and update the tools that are categorised as necessary here.
If you want to check that the cookie banner is working correctly, press
Doneon theCookieS in usewindows, pressAccept Allon the cookie banner and re-open theCookies in usewindow (step 5).
Method 3: [Advanced] Checking your website source code.
You can see your website’s source code by writing view-source: in front of your URL. Example: view-source:<https://www.privasee.io/>. This will show the source-code of the website:
Use one of the two methods above to check if there are cookies being placed that are not strictly necessary without user consent.
For each
<script>tag you must check:that you’ve changed or added the
typeattribute totype=text/plainthat you’ve added the attribute
data-usercentrics=<name of the tool or third party as shown in your personal data inventory>. For example for Hotjar:<script type="text/plain" data-usercentrics="Hotjar">
...
</script>If you find a script that is missing the correct attributes, add them.
👨🏫 Pro tip: check the source code for other external URLs, as services that load cookies can also be added by iframes, links or stylesheets.