How consent works
Which rules each visitor gets, what they see, what waits for their answer, and what we keep as proof.
The short answer
Each visitor gets the rules for where they are. In ask-first places, trackers wait for a yes. In opt-out places, they run until the visitor says stop. Every answer is kept as a record for 24 months.
The rules by region
We read the visitor's country, and in the US their state, from the request itself. We never ask a third-party location service.
| Where the visitor is | Rule | What they see |
|---|---|---|
| EU and EEA | Ask first | A banner with Reject all and Accept all |
| Germany | Ask first, with Germany's stricter reading kept separate | The same banner, in German where the page is German |
| UK | Ask first | A banner |
| Switzerland | Ask first: Swiss law is opt-out, but Google and Microsoft require consent for Swiss traffic | A banner |
| Brazil | Ask first | A banner (in English for now) |
| Türkiye, China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam | Ask first | A banner |
| Quebec | Ask first. A Canadian visitor whose province we can't read gets Quebec's rules | A banner |
| Rest of Canada | Opt-out | A "Your Privacy Choices" link |
| California | Opt-out, and a privacy signal (GPC) counts as an opt-out | A "Your Privacy Choices" link |
| Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Minnesota, Oregon, Delaware, Nebraska, Maryland | Opt-out, and a privacy signal (GPC) counts as an opt-out | A "Your Privacy Choices" link |
| Other US states | Opt-out | A "Your Privacy Choices" link |
| Anywhere else (no consent law, like Australia, Japan or Mexico) | Opt-out | A "Your Privacy Choices" link |
| Location unknown | The strictest rules we have (Germany's) | A banner |
When a browser sends a privacy signal (GPC) in a state that honours it, the visitor sees "Opt-out request honored" and nothing refusable runs.
What the banner looks like
In ask-first places the banner opens with Reject all and Accept all, the same size and colour, both on the first screen, and a link to choose purpose by purpose. You can change placement, colours, corners, typeface and wording. A contrast check stops you publishing colours visitors can't read.
On the free plan the banner carries a small "Consent by TagSentry" line. Paid Consent replaces it with your logo, if you want one.
Google's tags: Advanced and Basic
Advanced (the default). Google's tag and Tag Manager load straight away. Until a visitor agrees, Google's tags send only cookieless, consent-denied signals, which Google uses to estimate conversions from people who refuse.
Basic. Google's tag and Tag Manager wait until the visitor agrees. Nothing from Google loads before a yes. You lose Google's estimates for visitors who refuse. Turn it on per site under Banner › How trackers wait.
Trackers outside Tag Manager
Pixels pasted straight into your theme (Meta Pixel, Hotjar, TikTok, a YouTube embed) are held until the visitor agrees, once our scan has found them. YouTube embeds switch to youtube-nocookie.
What the line can't hold:
- a script that loads synchronously from a host our scan hasn't classified yet,
- scripts written with
document.write, - fonts and stylesheets,
- requests sent through your own domain (a first-party proxy),
- anything placed above our line in
<head>.
A new tracker is held once a scan finds it. You'll get an email when a new one appears.
Returning visitors
A choice is remembered for as long as you set (six months by default). If a category someone agreed to gains a new vendor, they're asked again.
Records
Every answer is a consent record, kept 24 months on every plan, in the region you chose. A record holds the outcome, the purposes, the method (banner, your own control, or privacy signal), the region, the banner version and wording, and an opaque consent ID the visitor can see in their preferences. It holds no IP address and no user agent.
On Records you can search by consent ID, filter by outcome, export the full set, and open a printable proof for one visitor showing exactly what they saw.
Languages
The banner speaks English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch, matching your page's language (its lang). The translations are machine-made and waiting for review. You can edit the banner's wording in every language.
In more depth
The dashboard's own reference goes further on each topic: