Avacy CMP vs WP Consent API

Overview The WordPress Consent Solution Plugin is a powerful tool that empowers website owners to easily configure a Consent Management Platform (CMP) and preemptively block all trackers on their website. This plugin ensures compliance with privacy regulations by providing users with the ability to manage their consent preferences for tracking technologies. Features Consent Management Platform (CMP) User-Friendly Interface: The plugin offers an intuitive dashboard for configuring and customizing the Consent Management Platform to suit your website’s needs. Customizable Cookie Banners: Easily create and customize consent banners to inform users about the use of trackers on your website. Consent Logging: Keep track of user consent preferences and ensure compliance with privacy regulations. Tracker Preemptive Blocking Comprehensive Tracker Database: The plugin includes a regularly updated database of known trackers. It enables you to preemptively block these trackers, enhancing user privacy. The plugin preemptively blocks all the scripts that might contain a string in the src attribute or in the inner HTML that matches the strings you can configure on Avacy for each vendor. Avacy is a SaaS-based CMP that helps websites manage user consents efficiently and in compliance with data protection regulations. The platform offers customizable consent forms and integrates seamlessly with various web properties. Compatible with WP Consent API Avacy integrates out-of-the-box with the WP Consent API plugin. When WP Consent API is active, Avacy: registers itself as a compliant CMP (no admin action required); forces the optin consent type so other WP Consent API-aware plugins behave correctly by default; bridges the Avacy banner consent event to wp_set_consent, mapping Google Consent Mode flags to WP Consent API categories. The mapping applied when the user interacts with the banner is: WP Consent API category Granted when the user accepts… functional always allow preferences personalization_storage statistics analytics_storage statistics-anonymous analytics_storage marketing any of ad_storage, ad_user_data, ad_personalization The integration is dormant when WP Consent API is not installed, so it is safe to enable Avacy on any site. Usage Cookie Banners: Cookie banners will automatically appear on your site once configured. Users can manage their consent preferences through these banners. Tracker Control: Trackers are preemptively blocked based on a blacklist JSON file hosted on an AWS content delivery network. Every time a page in the website is loaded, Avacy checks if scripts injected in the current page have src attribute or the innerHTML property containing a string matching the patterns in the blacklist and, if so, overrides some attributes and blocks the script. Every script blocked this way will be launched only if user grants consent to the corresponding vendor and purposes by opting-in from the first layer or by selecting the vendor and its purposes from the second layer (the preference center). CDN Information The CDN used by Avacy is CloudFront, pointing to the following S3 bucket: https://avacy-cdn.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/ https://assets.avacy-cdn.com/ Integration Example Each custom vendor list can be reached using the following format: https://assets.avacy-cdn.com/config/{avacy_team_name}/{avacy_webspace_key}/custom-vendor-list.json; Explanation Base Url: The base URL for the configuration file is https://assets.avacy-cdn.com/config/. avacy_team_name: This option should be replaced with your specific tenant identifier. This is a unique identifier for your organization within Avacy. avacy_webspace_key: This option should be replaced with your specific webspace key. This is a unique identifier for your specific webspace within your tenant’s account. Example URL Assuming the following: Tenant ID: tenant123 Webspace Key: webspace456 The URL to access the custom vendor list would be: https://assets.avacy-cdn.com/config/tenant123/webspace456/custom-vendor-list.json Account Requirements To connect to and utilize Avacy’s services, you need an active Avacy account with valid credentials, which include: Tenant ID: Provided upon registration with Avacy. Webspace Key: Generated after creating a new web space on Avacy. Ensure you have these credentials available to correctly generate the URLs needed for integration. Avacy Consent Solution API The plugin provides an interface that allows connecting to your consent archive on Avacy. To do this, it’s necessary to generate a token from the Avacy platform and insert it into the Token field in the API token tab. This way, all the forms present on the page will be visible, and it will be possible to select various options, including: the ability to store consents given for that specific form in the consent archive; the fields to store for that form; a field to identify the user who has given the consent to be stored in the archive. Everytime a user submits his data from a contact form, Avacy will perform a POST request towards Avacy Consent API, using the previously generated token as authenticator. Under What Circumstances is Avacy Used? Avacy is utilized whenever users provide consent through forms or interactions on your WordPress site. The plugin sends this consent data to Avacy’s servers for storage and processing. Avacy Service Link For more information about Avacy and its features, visit Avacy’s website. Avacy Terms of Use and Privacy Policies Avacy uses 3rd party services as the Avacy REST API and AWS distributions to provide assets as the blacklist JSON file. Before integrating Avacy with this plugin, please review the Avacy Terms of use and Privacy Policy to understand how your data is handled and what responsibilities you have as a user of their service. We welcome your feedback and suggestions to improve the functionality of the plugin. Disclosure of Third-Party Service Usage Our plugin utilizes third-party services to enhance its functionality. Below, we detail the specific circumstances under which these services are used, along with links to the respective service providers, their terms of use, and privacy policies. Services Utilized Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a leading cloud platform offering a wide range of services, including computing power, storage, and networking, as well as advanced technologies like machine learning and IoT. AWS is designed for flexibility, scalability, and service reliability. AWS CloudFront is a fast content delivery network (CDN) service that securely delivers data, videos, applications, and APIs to users globally with low latency and high transfer speeds. The URLs https://jumpgroup.avacy-cdn.com and https://assets.avacy-cdn.com are custom domains provided to access the AWS CloudFront service. Each asset is fetched from these URLs. Script Enqueuing Script enqueuing involves dynamically adding the main JavaScript core in order to display the cookie banner on your page. This method ensures that scripts are loaded only when needed, reducing page load times and improving performance. Configuration Fetching CMP configuration fetching is used to dynamically load the latest CMP configuration settings and vendor lists from a remote server. This process ensures that the plugin operates with the most current data, improving security, compatibility, and functionality. Service Provider Information Service URL: Amazon Web Services Privacy Policy: AWS Privacy Policy Terms of Use: AWS Terms of Use Legal Protection For your protection and to ensure transparency, we disclose the reliance on third-party services within our plugin. The URLs above provide detailed information on the terms of use and privacy policies of AWS. Users are encouraged to review these documents to understand the terms and conditions under which these third-party services operate. By using our plugin, you acknowledge and agree to these terms and conditions. If you have any questions or concerns, please refer to the provided links or contact us directly for more information. License This WordPress Consent Solution Plugin is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0 or later.

WP Consent API is a plugin that standardizes the communication of accepted consent categories between plugins. It requires a cookie banner plugin and, at least, one other plugin that supports the WP Consent API. With this plugin, all supporting plugins can use the same set of methods to read and register the current consent category, allowing consent management plugins and other plugins to work together, improving compliance with privacy laws. WARNING: the plugin itself will not handle consent. It will show you how many plugins you have without Consent API support and will improve compliance on your site by ensuring smooth communication between cookie banner plugins and plugins that set cookies or track user data. What problem does this plugin solve? Currently, it is possible for a consent management plugin to block third-party services like Facebook, Google Maps, Twitter, etc. But if a WordPress plugin places a PHP cookie, a consent management plugin cannot prevent this. Secondly, some plugins integrate the tracking code on the clientside in javascript files that, when blocked, break the site. Or, if such a plugin’s javascript is minified, causing the URL to be unrecognizable and won’t get detected by an automatic blocking script. Lastly, the blocking approach requires a list of all types of URL’s that tracks data. A generic API where plugins adhere to can greatly facilitate a webmaster in getting a site compliant. Does usage of this API prevent third-party services from tracking user data? Primary this API is aimed at compliant first-party cookies or tracking by WordPress plugins. If such a plugin triggers, for example, Facebook, usage of this API will be of help. If a user embeds a Facebook iframe, a blocking tool is needed that initially disables the iframe and or scripts. Third-party scripts have to blocked by blocking functionality in a consent management plugin. To do this in core would be to intrusive, and is also not applicable to all users: only users with visitors from opt-in regions such as the European Union require such a feature. Such a feature also has a risk of breaking things. Additionally, blocking these and showing a nice placeholder requires even more sophisticated code, all of which should in my opinion not be part of WordPress core, for the same reasons. How does it work? There are two indicators that together tell if consent is given for a specific consent category, e.g., “marketing”: 1) the region based consent_type, which can be opt-in, opt-out, or other possible consent_types; 2) and the visitor’s choice: not set, allow, or deny. The consent_type is a function that wraps a filter, “wp_get_consent_type”. If there’s no consent management plugin to set it, it will return false. This will cause all consent categories to return true, allowing cookies to be set on all categories. If opt-in is set using this filter, a category will only return true if the value of the visitor’s choice is “allow”. If the region based consent_type is opt-out, it will return true if the visitor’s choice is not set or is “allow”. Clientside, a consent management plugin can dynamically manipulate the consent type and set several cookie categories. A plugin can use a hook to listen for changes or check the value of a given category. Categories and most other stuff can be extended with a filter. Existing integrations Categorized, and sorted alphabetically Example plugin Example plugin. The plugin basically consists of a shortcode, with a div that shows a tracking or not tracking message. No actual tracking is done 🙂 Consent Management Providers Abconsent Sirdata CMP. Beautiful Cookie Consent Banner. Clickio Consent Cookie Consent CMP. Complianz GDPR/CCPA. Consent Studio. consentmanager. Conzent. Cookiebot. CookieFirst. CookieHub. CookieTractor. CookieYes – Cookie Banner for Cookie Consent. GDPR Cookie Compliance. GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin – CCPA Ready. GetTerms. iubenda | All-in-one Compliance. Lawwwing. Pressidium Cookie Consent. TrustArc Cookie Consent Manager Consent Requiring Plugins AddToAny. AFL UTM Tracker Plugin. Burst Statistics. Google Site Kit. Pixel Manager for WooCommerce. Woo. WP Statistics. Demo site wpconsentapi.org Below are the plugins used to set up the demo site: Complianz The example plugin javascript, consent management plugin //set consent type window.wp_consent_type = 'optin' //dispatch event when consent type is defined. This is useful if the region is detected server side, so the consent type is defined later during the pageload let event = new CustomEvent('wp_consent_type_defined'); document.dispatchEvent( event ); //consent management plugin sets cookie when consent category value changes wp_set_consent('marketing', 'allow'); javascript, tracking plugin //listen to consent change event document.addEventListener("wp_listen_for_consent_change", function (e) { var changedConsentCategory = e.detail; for (var key in changedConsentCategory) { if (changedConsentCategory.hasOwnProperty(key)) { if (key === 'marketing' && changedConsentCategory[key] === 'allow') { console.log("just given consent, track user") } } } }); //basic implementation of consent check: if (wp_has_consent('marketing')){ activateMarketing(); console.log("set marketing stuff now!"); } else { console.log("No marketing stuff please!"); } PHP //declare compliance with consent level API $plugin = plugin_basename( __FILE__ ); add_filter( "wp_consent_api_registered_{$plugin}", '__return_true' ); /** * Example how a plugin can register cookies with the consent API * These cookies can then be shown on the front-end, to the user, with wp_get_cookie_info() */ function my_wordpress_register_cookies(){ if ( function_exists( 'wp_add_cookie_info' ) ) { wp_add_cookie_info( 'AMP_token', 'AMP', 'marketing', __( 'Session' ), __( 'Store a unique User ID.' ) ); } } add_action('plugins_loaded', 'my_wordpress_register_cookies'); if (wp_has_consent('marketing')){ //do marketing stuff } Service-level consent In addition to category-based consent, the API supports service-level consent control. This allows consent management plugins to grant or deny consent for specific services (like ‘google-analytics’ or ‘facebook-pixel’) independently from their category. When checking service consent with wp_has_service_consent(), the API first checks if explicit consent exists for that service. If no explicit consent is set, it falls back to the consent status of the service’s category. This enables fine-grained control: a user might accept statistics cookies in general, but explicitly deny a specific analytics service. Service consent can be checked and set both server-side (PHP) and client-side (JavaScript): PHP: //check if a specific service has consent if ( wp_has_service_consent( 'google-analytics' ) ) { //activate google analytics } //check if a service is explicitly denied if ( wp_is_service_denied( 'facebook-pixel' ) ) { //service was explicitly denied by user } //set service consent wp_set_service_consent( 'google-analytics', true ); //grant consent wp_set_service_consent( 'facebook-pixel', false ); //deny consent //listen for service consent changes add_action( 'wp_consent_service_changed', function( $service, $consented ) { error_log( "Service {$service} consent changed to: " . ( $consented ? 'granted' : 'denied' ) ); }, 10, 2 ); JavaScript: //check service consent if ( wp_has_service_consent( 'youtube' ) ) { //activate tracking } //check if explicitly denied if ( wp_is_service_denied( 'facebook-pixel' ) ) { //service denied } //set service consent wp_set_service_consent( 'youtube', true ); //listen for service consent changes document.addEventListener( 'wp_consent_api_status_change_service', function( e ) { console.log( 'Service: ' + e.detail.service + ', consented: ' + e.detail.value ); }); Any code suggestions? We’re on GitHub as well!