Cookie banner plugin for WordPress – Cookiebot CMP by Usercentrics

FAQ

Is Cookiebot free?

Cookiebot is a freemium plugin, much like Jetpack and Monsterinsights.

Whether the free plan is sufficient or you need a premium plan depends on two things:

1. The size of your website, i.e. the number of subpages on your website.
   You cannot choose whether you want a free plan or a premium plan, as this is determined by the number of subpages on your website. Get a quote to see which plan your site needs.

2. The features you need. The free plan does not include all features available in the premium plans. The free plan does not include customization of banner and cookies declaration, multiple languages, email reports, data export, geolocation, bulk consent, consent statistics, internal domain alias for development, test and staging.

If more than 50 subpages are found during the initial website scan, you will be given a free one-month trial of Cookiebot CMP with full functionality.

See all details of Cookiebot CMP plans and pricing.

What does Cookiebot count as pages?

Your pricing plan is dependent on the number of subpages the Cookiebot CMP detects on your website.

Cookiebot does not count image files as subpages, thus setting users to a higher subscription plan. Depending on your theme, WordPress may automatically create real pages for content placed in your media library, called Attachment pages. Because these pages can contain online trackers, Cookiebot CMP includes them in your page count.

To disable the Attachment page feature in WordPress, please see the following guides:

https://themeskills.com/disable-media-attachment-pages-wordpress/
https://www.wpexplorer.com/disable-image-page/

Cookie declaration

Cookiebot CMP also includes an automatically updated cookie declaration for the cookies in use on your site.

By implementing it, you ensure that your cookie declaration is specific and accurate at all times, as required by the GDPR. Also, the declaration automatically provides the mandatory options for the user to change or withdraw consent.

For CCPA and CPRA compliance, businesses will be able to display the required Do Not Sell Or Share My Personal Information link on their cookie declaration.

To display your cookie declaration, create a new page on your website and add the shortcode provided by the plugin to the page: [cookie_declaration]. Alternatively, you can incorporate it into your existing Privacy Policy.

By default, the cookie declaration is displayed in the selected Cookiebot CMP language. You are able to override this setting with a “lang” attribute in the shortcode. E.g.: [cookie_declaration lang=”de”] for a German version. Remember to add all languages used in the Cookiebot Manager.

Cookie-checker: What cookies are in use on my site?

If you are in doubt about what cookies are in use on our site, start with our free compliance test:

Test my site

The test scans up to five pages of your website and sends you a complete report of the cookies and online tracking on these pages, including information on their provenance, purpose and whether or not they are compliant with EU regulations.

If you want a complete overview of the cookies and online tracking on your website, sign up for the Cookiebot CMP solution.

How can I set up my cookie banner with Cookiebot CMP?

Please find here our step by step guide on how to set up your cookie banner.

How does Cookiebot CMP block cookies and trackers?

Cookiebot CMP provides two modes to block cookies and trackers before consent has been given.

1. Auto cookie-blocking mode will automatically block all cookies (except for ‘strictly necessary’ cookies) until a user has given consent. Learn more about the auto cookie-blocking mode.
2. Manual cookie-blocking mode requests manual adjustments to the cookie-setting scripts. Read more about the manual cookie-blocking mode.

What is the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive?

The GDPR is the General Data Protection Regulation, an EU law enforced since May 2018. It protects EU citizens’ personal data globally and affects all organizations and websites that handle such data. If you have a website with users from the EU, and if your website uses cookies (it probably does), then you need to make your use of cookies and tracking compliant with the GDPR.

See the EU GDPR homepage for more information, or their infographic for businesses: Data Protection: Better rules for small businesses.

The ePrivacy Directive is another EU legal instrument that specifically aims to protect EU citizens’ online data, such as data from online communication. It is in the process of becoming a full regulation like the GDPR.

What is the CCPA and CPRA?

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a state-wide law that regulates how businesses all over the world are allowed to handle the personal information of California residents. Starting from January 1, 2023 the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) comes into effect, amending and extending the CCPA.

You are liable for CCPA compliance if your business:

Sells the personal information of more than 50,000 California residents per year (increased to 100,000 under the CPRA as of January 1st, 2023)
Has an annual gross revenue exceeding $25 million
Derives more than 50 percent of its annual revenue from the selling of personal information of California residents

Under the CPRA, compliance also applies to sharing as well as selling personal information. Cookies and other tracking technologies are classified as unique identifiers that form part of the CCPA’s definition of personal information.

If your business has a website, you must know and disclose to consumers, at or before the point of collection, the data you collect and which third parties you share it with. This can be done through the Cookiebot CMP cookie declaration that also features the required “Do Not Sell Or Share My Personal Information” link, so end users can opt out of having their data sold or shared.

If your website is visited by consumers under the age of 16, you are required by the CCPA and CPRA to first obtain their opt in. This can be done through Cookiebot CMP’s CCPA opt-in banner.

Click here to find all the details about the CCPA and CPRA and how to achieve compliance.

How do I make other plugins support Cookiebot?

If your favorite plugin doesn’t support Cookiebot CMP you are always welcome to ask the developer to add support for it.

Send an email to the plugin developer you want to support Cookiebot and request that support for Cookiebot CMP be added. Cookiebot provides a helper function to check if there is an active, working version of Cookiebot CMP on the website.

The easiest way for a developer to implement Cookiebot CMP support is following to add a check where tags are outputted to the visitor. This can be done following way:

$scriptTag = ‘‘;
if(function_exists(‘cookiebot_active’) && cookiebot_active()) {
$scriptTag = ‘<script’.cookiebot_assist(‘statistics’).’>’;
}

The developer of the plugin can see more details on our Github repository.

Can my website become compliant once I install Cookiebot CMP?

If you use our plugin version 3.0 or later and choose the automatic implementation, Cookiebot enables full compliance with the ‘prior consent’ requirement of the GDPR, the ePrivacy Directive (ePR) and similar privacy regulations for protection of user data around the world. Cookiebot CMP also enables compliance with the CCPA and CPRA through the implementation of the “Do Not Sell Or Share My Personal Information” link on a website’s cookie declaration, as well as the opt-in banner required if your website targets visitors under the age of 16.

The default consent banner has the strictest settings possible and is suitable for obtaining consent under both GDPR and the ePR. Make sure to adapt the consent banner content to fit your website. Check out our GDPR checklist if you have website visitors from the EU. If you are using server-side cookies, please check the Server-side usage guide.

Be aware that Cookiebot CMP is customizable and therefore true compliance always depends on the settings that you make within the plugin and Cookiebot Manager.

Are you using the manual implementation? Please make sure to check if you are using plugins that set cookies which require consent. If so, you have to:
1. Ask the plugin developers if they are planning on becoming GDPR/CCPA compliant, or if they would like to integrate with Cookiebot CMP. Check out our Github repository, where we are developing integrations for Cookiebot CMP, until the plugin developers choose to do this themselves, or if WP Core enables such functionality.
2. Once Cookiebot CMP is installed, you can check the cookie report to identify all cookies being set on your website. If the cookies are coming from content that you have inserted manually, you can mark up that content as described in our manual implementation guide step 4. Embedded videos and iframes which set cookies can be marked up as explained in our iframe cookie consent with YouTube example.

Disclaimer: These statements do not constitute legal advice, but only serve to support and inform you about the Cookiebot CMP product. Please consult a qualified lawyer should you have any legal questions.

Can I use Cookiebot with Google Tag Manager?

Cookiebot works with GTM. There are two different options for setting up GTM with Cookiebot CMP:

Use the Google Tag Manager option in the plugin settings to enable GTM with Cookiebot. Here you also have the option to enable Google Consent Mode for GTM.
Add the GTM script manually or by using another plugin for your site.
Should you choose one of these methods, Cookiebot CMP must not be implemented using GTM as this would result in Cookiebot being loaded twice.

If you prefer the latter method, you should select ´Hide Cookie Popup´ in the Cookiebot WordPress plugin settings.

Please see our article on how to deploy Cookiebot with GTM.

What is Google Consent Mode and can I use it with Cookiebot CMP?

Google Consent Mode is an open API that enables your website to run all Google services, such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Google Ads, based on the consent status of your end users. It helps you make the best use of visitors’ data and consent.

Google Consent Mode is enabled by default in the Cookiebot CMP plugin.
Learn more

Does Cookiebot integrate with WP Consent API?

Cookiebot is fully integrated with the WP Consent API. When your visitors give consent using Cookiebot CMP, the consent will automatically be sent to the WP Consent API.

You can define the mapping between Cookiebot and the WP Consent API in the administration interface (Cookiebot WP plugin).

Does Cookiebot work with translation plugins?

Cookiebot CMP is compatible with translation plugins when you set language to “Use WordPress Language”.

What are add-ons and can I use them with the Cookiebot CMP plugin?

Add-ons are produced by an open-source community of developers. They enable you to implement opt-out for cookies and trackers set by plugins without built-in consent functionality. Add-ons signal the user’s consent state to other plugins. You can use them with the Cookiebot CMP plugin.

Please note that we don’t take responsibility for the use of add-ons, as they are not under our control. There may be times when an add-on will not work properly until it has been updated to reflect changes in the plugin that the add-on hooks into.

If your favorite plugin isn’t supported, feel free to request it via our GitHub page.