WordPress.org

Viktor Szépe

Rogier Lankhorst

Aert

Mark

pepe

Konstantinos Xenos

Mathieu Paapst

mujuonly

Aurooba Ahmed

Johan Holst Nielsen

<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h4>What problem does this plugin solve?</h4>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Secondly, some plugins integrate the tracking code on the clientside in javascript files that, when blocked, break the site.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<br />
facilitate a webmaster in getting a site compliant.</p>
<h4>Does usage of this API prevent third-party services from tracking user data?</h4>
<p>Primary this API is aimed at compliant first-party cookies or tracking by WordPress plugins. If such a plugin triggers, for example, Facebook,<br />
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h4>How does it work?</h4>
<p>There are two indicators that together tell if consent is given for a specific consent category, e.g., “marketing”:<br />
1) the region based consent_type, which<br />
can be opt-in, opt-out, or other possible consent_types;<br />
2) and the visitor’s choice: not set, allow, or deny.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>If opt-in is set using this filter, a category will only return true if the value of the visitor’s choice is “allow”.</p>
<p>If the region based consent_type is opt-out, it will return true if the visitor’s choice is not set or is “allow”.</p>
<p>Clientside, a consent management plugin can dynamically manipulate the consent type and set several cookie categories.</p>
<p>A plugin can use a hook to listen for changes or check the value of a given category.</p>
<p>Categories and most other stuff can be extended with a filter.</p>
<h3>Existing integrations</h3>
<p>Categorized, and sorted alphabetically</p>
<h4>Example plugin</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/rlankhorst/consent-api-example-plugin" rel="nofollow ugc">Example plugin</a>. The plugin basically consists of a shortcode, with a div that shows a tracking or not tracking message. No actual tracking is done 🙂</li>
</ul>
<h4>Consent Management Providers</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/sirdata-cmp/" rel="ugc">Abconsent Sirdata CMP</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/beautiful-and-responsive-cookie-consent/" rel="ugc">Beautiful Cookie Consent Banner</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/clickio-consent/" rel="ugc">Clickio Consent</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/complianz-gdpr/" rel="ugc">Complianz GDPR/CCPA</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://consent.studio/" rel="nofollow ugc">Consent Studio</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/consent-manager/" rel="ugc">consentmanager</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://conzent.net/" rel="nofollow ugc">Conzent</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/cookiebot/" rel="ugc">Cookiebot</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/cookiefirst-gdpr-cookie-consent-banner/" rel="ugc">CookieFirst</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/cookiehub/" rel="ugc">CookieHub</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/cookietractor/" rel="ugc">CookieTractor</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/cookie-law-info/" rel="ugc">CookieYes – Cookie Banner for Cookie Consent</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gdpr-cookie-compliance/" rel="ugc">GDPR Cookie Compliance</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.webtoffee.com/product/gdpr-cookie-consent/" rel="nofollow ugc">GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin – CCPA Ready</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://getterms.io/consent-manager/" rel="nofollow ugc">GetTerms</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/iubenda-cookie-law-solution/" rel="ugc">iubenda | All-in-one Compliance</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/pressidium-cookie-consent/" rel="ugc">Pressidium Cookie Consent</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/trustarc-cookie-consent-manager/" rel="ugc">TrustArc Cookie Consent Manager</a></li>
</ul>
<h4>Consent Requiring Plugins</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/add-to-any/" rel="ugc">AddToAny</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.appfromlab.com/product/woocommerce-utm-tracker-plugin/" rel="nofollow ugc">AFL UTM Tracker Plugin</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/burst-statistics/" rel="ugc">Burst Statistics</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-site-kit/" rel="ugc">Google Site Kit</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce-google-adwords-conversion-tracking-tag/" rel="ugc">Pixel Manager for WooCommerce</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce/" rel="ugc">Woo</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-statistics/" rel="ugc">WP Statistics</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Demo site</h3>
<p><a href="https://wpconsentapi.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">wpconsentapi.org</a><br />
Below are the plugins used to set up the demo site:</p>
<ul>
<li>Complianz</li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/rlankhorst/consent-api-example-plugin" rel="nofollow ugc">The example plugin</a></li>
</ul>
<h4>javascript, consent management plugin</h4>
<pre><code>//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');
</code></pre>
<h4>javascript, tracking plugin</h4>
<pre><code>//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!");
}
</code></pre>
<h4>PHP</h4>
<pre><code>//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
}
</code></pre>
<h4>Service-level consent</h4>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Service consent can be checked and set both server-side (PHP) and client-side (JavaScript):</p>
<p>PHP:</p>
<pre><code>//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 );
</code></pre>
<p>JavaScript:</p>
<pre><code>//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 );
});
</code></pre>
<p>Any code suggestions? We’re on <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/wp-consent-level-api" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a> as well!</p>


WP Consent API


Louis was great helping me with an issue. Plugin works great and highly recommend!


Great Support Team


The wp‑consent‑api plugin provides a clean, standardized way to manage user consent across plugins and themes. It solves a core problem with a lightweight API. This is definitely a feature that should be integrated into WordPress core to ensure consistent and compliant consent handling by default.


Future of WP Consent Management

Simple Consent API to read and register the current consent category.

Humanityco

<p><strong>Compliance by Hu-manity.co</strong> (formerly known as Cookie Notice) provides a simple, customizable website banner that can be used to help your website comply with cookie consent requirements under the EU GDPR, CCPA, and other data privacy laws — with <strong>seamless integration</strong> with Cookie Compliance to help your site comply with the latest updates to existing consent laws.</p>
<p><strong>Cookie Compliance</strong> is a fully featured Consent Management Platform (CMP) that provides automated compliance features and enhanced design controls in a state-of-the-art web application. Cookie Compliance enables websites to <strong>take a proactive approach to data protection and consent laws</strong>. It is the first solution to offer Intentional Consent, a new consent framework that incorporates the latest guidelines from over 100+ countries, and emerging standards from leading international organizations like the IEEE and European Center for Digital Rights (noyb.eu). Cookie Compliance provides a beautiful, multi-level experience and includes new choices and controls for site visitors to better understand and engage in data privacy decisions.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our Cookie Compliance web application introduces a more ethical, proactive way to capture and manage consent.  This early version of the emerging Intentional Consent framework is a result of Hu-manity.co’s ongoing work with top Fortune 500 companies, governments, and standards organizations, who believe that the imbalanced relationship between consumers and corporations is unsustainable when it comes to data privacy and consent online. We are making it available for all website owners and operators who share this belief and support our mission to eliminate the dark patterns in online consent.<br />
  Matt Sinderbrand – Chief Platform Officer, Hu-manity.co</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Compliance (plugin only)</h3>
<p>Compliance by Hu-manity.co provides a simple, customizable website banner to help your website comply with certain cookie consent requirements.</p>
<h4>Banner features:</h4>
<ul>
<li>Customizable notice message</li>
<li>Consent on click, scroll or close</li>
<li>Multiple cookie expiry options</li>
<li>Link to Privacy Policy page</li>
<li>WordPress Privacy Policy page synchronization</li>
<li>WPML and Polylang compatible</li>
<li>SEO friendly</li>
</ul>
<h3>Cookie Compliance (plugin + web application)</h3>
<p>Cookie Compliance gives you access to the most up-to-date formatting guidelines and technical compliance requirements for over 100 countries and legal jurisdictions.</p>
<h4>Banner features:</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Intentional Consent</strong> provides 3 equal buttons to give site visitors the ability to accept none, some, or all cookies through packaged choices called Data Access Levels. Data Access Levels improve consent conversion and eliminate the dark pattern of deceptive, non-equal choices in the first layer. <em>Complies with equal choice principle prescribed under GDPR and other data protection laws.</em></li>
<li><strong>Consent duration selector</strong> gives visitor control over how long their consent remains valid for your site.  <em>Enables your site to align with recent guidelines from EU Data Protection Authorities, which state that cookie consent should be valid for no longer than a period of 6 months.</em></li>
<li><strong>Cookie purpose categories</strong> make it easy for website visitors to customize their consent by category. <em>Complies with affirmative, opt-in consent requirements prescribed under GDPR and other data protection laws.</em></li>
<li><strong>Consent metrics</strong> displays the visitor’s consent record and a list of blocked / allowed 3rd parties directly in the expanded level of the banner. <em>Complies with latest guidance from EU Data Protection Authorities like CNIL (France) and ICO (UK). </em></li>
<li><strong>Customizable Privacy Paper</strong> provides helpful information to improve visitor comprehension and understanding of the data sharing risks and benefits. Allows you to summarize core components of your sites privacy notice and <em>aligns with the informed principle prescribed by GDPR rules for valid consent capture. </em></li>
<li><strong>Configurable Privacy Contact</strong> allows you to provide contact information for a business’ data privacy admin, as well as helpful links to data subject request forms and other data privacy resources. <em>Aligns with the informed principle prescribed by GDPR rules for valid consent capture.</em></li>
</ul>
<h4>Web Application features:</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Consent analytics dashboard</strong> shows event data for number of visits and provides a “trust score” to help you track how site visitors are setting their consent. Make adjustments to your banner to improve your cookie acceptance rate and monitor progress via the consent activity graph.</li>
<li><strong>Default configurations</strong> for GDPR, CCPA and more help to remove dark patterns and allow for quick and easy deployment of the consent banner without any guesswork. Customize the design of any default configuration to match the look and feel of your site.</li>
<li><strong>Automatic script blocking</strong> blocks all non-essential cookie scripts and iFrames by default and <em>complies with valid consent rules under GDPR and other data protection laws</em>; in order to be compliant, your site must record visitor consent before setting or sending cookies.</li>
<li><strong>Google Consent Mode</strong> ensures that your website can still gather valuable insights and perform effectively while respecting users’ privacy preferences by <em>dynamically adjusting the behavior of Google services according to user consent.</em></li>
<li><strong>Facebook Consent Mode</strong> allows your website to <em>measure the impact of your ads on Facebook</em>, track website activities and conversions and automatically deliver ads to Facebook if the user has agreed to.</li>
<li><strong>Consent record storage</strong> automatically stores a record of each consent and makes these records available for export. <em>Complies with proof-of-consent requirements prescribed under GDPR and other data protection laws.</em></li>
<li><strong>Multilingual support</strong> automatically translates all banner text strings and allows you to provide custom translations for every text field to ensure visitors get a consistent consent experience.</li>
<li><strong>Multidomain management</strong> allows you to manage additional Free or Professional domains under a single account and enables you to customize banner configuration and design for each domain independently.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Cookie Compliance proactive approach:</h4>
<p>For all businesses, the resources required to stay ahead of the latest regulations increases with the passage of each new law. With enforcement of compliance violations increasing daily, we believe it is critical for us as a trusted consent vendor to do everything in our power to help you stay ahead of these laws and remove the risk to your business</p>
<p><strong>Cookie Compliance covers all current and upcoming regulations:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>GDPR (EU)</li>
<li>ePrivacy Directive (EU)</li>
<li>ePrivacy Regulation (EU)</li>
<li>PECR (UK)</li>
<li>LGPD (Brazil)</li>
<li>PIPEDA (Canada)</li>
<li>PDPB (India)</li>
<li>CCPA (California, US)</li>
<li>VCDPA (Virginia, US)</li>
<li>Colorado Privacy Act (US)</li>
<li>CPRA (California, US)</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Cookie Compliance incorporates all recent formatting guidance:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS)</li>
<li>ICO (United Kingdom)</li>
<li>CNIL (France)</li>
<li>GPDP (Italy)</li>
<li>BfDl (Germany)</li>
<li>AEPD (Spain)</li>
<li>European Center for Digital Rights (noyb.eu)</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Cookie Compliance targets dark patterns</strong></p>
<p>Dark Patterns are user interface (UI) techniques that push site visitors to make decisions (such as agreeing to the installation of cookies on their devices) that they might not otherwise make. The most common Dark Pattern is the lack of an equal “reject all” button on the first layer of the consent notice. Dark Patterns are explicitly banned under GDPR and other data protection laws.</p>
<p>As a part of our proactive approach, Cookie Compliance is configured by default to prevent Dark Patterns through our unique Intentional Consent design.</p>


Compliance by Hu-manity.co

So yeah it's pretty bad, not sure why it looks so popular

Crappy bloated software that adds huge unhidable ads on your whole dashboard


This plugin is culprit, like many others, of the same bad practice which consists of abusing admin notices and alerts to remind them to you, the admin. A good plugin is one that does it job and you forget about it. Adding a "ignore notification" that does absolutely nothing (class cn-notice-dismiss) is woth a systematic 1/5.


Some admin notices can't be hidden: stop bloating our admin interface

Intentional Consent for WordPress — GDPR, CCPA, CPRA & ePrivacy compliance with consent records, autoblocking & Google Consent Mode v2.

WP Consent API vs Compliance by Hu-manity.co