Consent Mode
Also known as: Google Consent Mode, Consent Mode v2, consent signals
Consent Mode is Google's mechanism for a site to tell its tags what a visitor agreed to, using a small set of named signals rather than simply removing the tags. The tags then adjust what they do: with consent they behave normally, without it they send less, or nothing.
What are the consent signals?
Four named states, each either granted or denied. Two cover analytics and advertising storage, meaning whether a tag may keep anything on the device. The two added in version 2 cover whether advertising data may be sent to Google at all and whether it may be used for personalisation.
What actually stops when a visitor refuses?
Storage first: nothing is kept on the device, so a returning visitor is not recognised. Depending on the signals, the tag may still send an anonymous, cookieless ping, or nothing. Refusal is not a display problem to work around; it is the visitor's answer, and it removes data rather than hiding it.
Does Consent Mode apply to Meta?
Not directly. Consent Mode is Google's, and Meta has its own handling. What the two share is the underlying obligation: the visitor's answer has to travel with the event rather than be decided once at the tag. wesaw records the consent state on every event for that reason, and an explicit refusal is honoured.
Sources
- Google Consent Mode v2 added the `ad_user_data` and `ad_personalization` signals to the original storage signals, and Google requires them for advertising features in the European Economic Area.Google for Developers
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