2024-02-23 | Article | Insights
The landscape of digital privacy and data protection has evolved significantly with the introduction of key legislative frameworks such as the ePrivacy Directive, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the more recent Digital Markets Act (DMA). For businesses operating in the European Economic Area (EEA), compliance with these regulations is critical, particularly concerning the processing of personal data and the crucial role of end-user consent.
The Digital Markets Act, effective from March 2024, has brought several changes, especially for major players like Google, referred to as 'gatekeepers.' Notably, the responsibility for collecting user consent required for utilising core platform services now rests with these gatekeepers. As a response to these regulatory shifts and the growing emphasis on user privacy, Google has introduced Consent Mode Version 2 (CoMo V2).
In its effort to align with the evolving legal landscape and address the heightened demand for user privacy, Google has rolled out Consent Mode V2. The primary distinction lies in the addition of two new consent states: ad_user_data and ad_personalization, representing the user's consent for Google's advertising purposes and ad personalization, respectively.
In contrast to ad_storage and analytics_storage, these flags do not directly affect the functioning of tags on the website. Instead, they serve as supplementary parameters transmitted with the pings to Google services.
Consent Mode V2 has an impact on the behaviour of Google tags, affecting platforms like Google Analytics 4, Google Marketing Platform, and Google Ads. This adjustment applies to both App and Web setups.
The new version of Consent Mode introduced two concepts:
In addition to the existing "Google Consent Status" (gcs) parameter, which can have values like G100, G110, G101, or G111, you can also use the parameter: "Google Consent Default" (gcd).
The format of the gcd parameter follows a specific structure:
Here, the constant "11" at the beginning is followed by values for each parameter separated by "1", with the sequence concluding with the constant value "5". The lowercase letters denote different consent statuses, indicating whether consent is granted, denied, or missing, and specifying events related to default and/or update consent signals.
Common constellations include p, t, q, and r, with l representing a missing consent type, and m, u, n, and v being rather rare and indicating incomplete or faulty implementations.
This is the different status combinations (not documented yet from Google) and examples:
Basic Consent Mode is highly recommended for all Google related tags, especially if your operations cover the European Economic Area. (EEA)
If you are using Google’s advertising services, Consent Mode should be a must:
The choice between the advanced and the basic version will help a lot to model the non-consensual data much better.
Businesses in the EEA using Google Ads or GMP should adopt or upgrade to Consent Mode V2. This is crucial for precise conversion tracking and efficient optimization of ad spending. By integrating a cookie banner in line with Consent Mode V2, businesses can effectively convey consent signals to Google, ensuring compliance with changing regulations and protecting user privacy.