This article gives instructions on how to set up and use the Monsido Consent Manager feature for website cookie banners, cookie scan detection, and cookie maintenance.
This article also covers the legislation and regulation requirements to help website owners know which compliance level to target.
Article Navigation
Introduction
Key Features
Custom & Accessible Branding
Design a cookie acceptance banner to meet legislation and regulation requirements. Customize the banner to match the company brand and meet accessibility standards.
Consent Analytics
View real-time data about visitor cookie acceptance trends.
Consent Log
Visitor consent is properly and anonymously logged and stored, as required by GDPR.
Video Setup Tutorial
This section gives a video walkthrough that describes how to set up Monsido Consent Manager. Follow the link below to view the tutorial on YouTube.
Instructions
This section gives instructions on how to set up the cookie banner and how to categorize cookies.
Note: If your website uses Google Tag Manager, configure your setup via Google Tag Manager. See Google Tag Manager - Monsido Deployment for instructions.
Click Admin Settings (gear icon) at the top of the page. Access from the Monsido Domain Overview (globe icon). The Admin Settings page opens.
Note: The Settings button is only available to site admins.
Click Action on the same row as the domain to scan.
Select Edit Domain from the drop-down list.
The Domain Settings page opens.
Locate the Features section.
Click to turn the Monsido Consent Manager switch to ON.
Save. The Edit Domain page closes and the Admin settings page reopens.
Click Action on the Admin settings page, on the same row as the domain from the last step. A drop-down list expands.
Select Script Setup Guide. The Set up your domain page opens.
Click to turn the Add Monsido Consent Manager switch on.
Click the Open consent manager script settings link.
The Consent Manager Script Settings page opens.
Cookie Banner Setup
Configure the Consent Manager settings:
Consent Manager pop-up setup
Click on the mini window to select the location for the cookie banner pop-up to appear on the website landing page. The options are:
Top left
Top center
Top right
Middle left
Middle right
Bottom left
Bottom center
Bottom right.
Consent Manager Configuration
This section gives instructions on how to set up the cookies to comply with CCPA or GDPR standards.
Privacy regulation: Select the compliance regulation for your geographical location or intended audience.
Tick to select:
CCPA
GDPR
Both CCPA & GDPR.
Note: The fields that expand with each selection are not the same. Continue for instructions on each selection.
For more information, see the User Guide chapter:
CCPA Setup
Opt out link: Click in the input field and enter the link to the company opt-out page.
Link to Privacy Policy: Click in the input field and enter the link to the company Privacy Policy.
Tip: The link should begin with http:// or https:// and can contain a maximum of 100 characters.
For more information, see the User Guide chapter:
Cookie Overview:
Manage: Select this option if you choose manage the cookies via Monsido.
See Manage Cookies below for instructions on how to add and manage the cookies.
Link: Select this option if you have already done the work of categorizing your cookies, and wish to add a link to an external Cookie Overview page.
Add empty callbacks: Add empty callbacks to the boilerplate (sections of nearly identical code that are reused in many places).
Add empty EventListeners: Add event listeners to the boilerplate (detects sections of nearly identical code that are reused in many places).
Add web overlay lock: Lock the website behind the banner, so that users cannot interact with the website before they accept cookies.
Note: This setting is not advised, as some interpretations of the regulations prohibit this behavior.
Consent Manager Language: From the list, select all of the languages that are used on your website. This is the language that the cookie banner shows. Monsido detects the page language and displays in the appropriate language.
Default Language: Click the drop-down arrow and select a default language that is used for any page in a language that is not supported.
For more information, see the User Guide chapter:
GDPR Setup
(General Data Protection Regulation): Select this option to access the following fields.
Per category consent: Select this option to give users more control over which cookie categories they can choose to accept. The choices that website users can choose from when this option is selected are:
Marketing: Toggle the switch OFF to reject marketing cookies, or ON to accept marketing cookies.
Statistics: Toggle the switch OFF to reject Statistics cookies, or ON to accept Statistics cookies.
Preferences: Toggle the switch OFF to reject Preferences cookies, or ON to accept Preferences cookies.
Explicit reject option: Select this option to change the text on the banner button from ‘Only Essential Cookies’ to ‘Explicit Reject’.
Link to Privacy Policy: Click in the input field and enter the link to the relevant privacy policy. The link should begin with HTTP:// or HTTPS:// and can not have more than 100 characters.
For more information, see the User Guide chapter:
Note: Cookies are dynamic and often change. Update the cookie policy regularly to ensure up-to-date information.
Cookie Overview: Click Manage Cookies to add cookies manually. The Include Cookies window opens. See the Manage Cookies section below for full instructions on how to add cookies manually. In the cookie list, an icon of a person pointing indicates a manually-added cookie.
Note: To use the Monsido scan to set up cookies via the script, click Data Privacy (the lock icon) on the top toolbar of the page to navigate to the Data Privacy module.
Add empty callbacks: Tick to add empty callbacks to the boilerplate (sections of nearly identical code that are reused in many places).
Add empty EventListeners: Tick to add event listeners to the boilerplate (sections of nearly identical code that are reused in many places).
Consent Manager Language: From the list, select all of the languages that are used on your website. This is the language that the cookie banner shows. Monsido detects the page language and displays in the appropriate language.
Default Language: Click the drop-down arrow and select a default language that is used for any page in a language that is not supported.
For more information, see the User Guide chapter:
Both GDPR & CCPA
Select this option for a combination of GDPR and CCPA regulations. See the previous article sections for explanations of the regulations.
Widget design
Choose an icon: Click to select the appearance of the cookie icon. The choices are:
Chocolate Chip cookie
Chocolate Chip cookie with a bite taken out of it
Gingerbread cookie
Peanut Butter cookie.
Icon shape: Click the drop-down list to select an icon shape. The choices are Circle and Rounded Box.
Text color: Click in the input field to select a color with the color picker, or enter the RGB code for the color (usually a color that fits with the website theme).
Tip! The Monsido Color Contrast Checker is a quick way to test the color combinations on websites and pages.Button color: Click in the input field to select a color with the color picker, or enter the RGB code for the color (usually a color that fits with the website theme).
Color contrast ratio: This number shows the contrast ratio of the selected colors for the buttons and the button text. The contrast can be Bad (0-3.99) or Good (4 and above). Bad contrast options cannot be saved, to meet accessibility requirements.
Save the changes.
Copy the script and add it to the website HTML code.
Add HTML Attributes.
HTML attributes must be added to content elements on your website if you only want them to load once a consent choice has been provided by the visitor. For example, if you are using Google Analytics on your website and only want the script to load once a visitor has accepted Statistics cookies, you will need to mark up the Google Analytics script with an HTML attribute.
For more information and instructions, see the Monsido for Developers article:
For more information, see the User Guide chapters:
Cookie Setup
This section gives instructions on how to manage cookies manually, for example, how to add cookies that are not detected by the scan.
Note: If a cookie is added manually and then the scanner finds it, its source is not modified.
From the domain Dashboard, click Data Privacy (lock icon) on the menu bar.
The Data Privacy Page opens.
From the menu on the left, click Consent Overview.
The menu expands with the following options:
Cookie Acceptance Rate
Consent Log
Cookie Overview.
Click to select:
Cookie Acceptance Rate: The Cookie Acceptance Rate page opens. Here is an overview of the customer cookie acceptance rates.
The Acceptance Rate by Category page shows acceptance rates by cookie categories.
The Overall Acceptance Rate page shows a percentage of cookies accepted, as well as a graph chart with acceptance rates over time.
Consent Log: This page lists IP addresses that interacted with the cookies on the website, shown in chart format. The log is kept on Monsido servers for two years.
The column headers are:IP Address: The IP address of the computer that browsed the site.
UUID: The unique ID for the user device that received the cookie.
Note: This ID is gone from the user's device when the cookies on that device are deleted by the user. When the UUID is gone, the user can no longer request the record of the cookie consent.
Location: The country of origin that the user accessed the site from.
Data Regulation: The applicable regulation,: GDPR, CCPA, or both.
Accepted cookies: The cookie categories that the user accepted.
Date: The date that the user accepted the cookies.
Cookie Overview: The menu expands. This section gives information about cookies and the cookie acceptance rates by users. The Cookie Overview page opens.
Note: The first time that the scan populates cookies, the list only shows cookies that have been added manually and those that are present on the Monsido database of common cookies.
Select Cookie Overview. The Cookie Overview page opens.
The table fields have the following columns:
Category: Click the drop-down arrow and select the category for the cookie.
Essential: These cookies are required to enable basic website functionality. Note: Essential cookies cannot be deselected by the user.
Basic (Recommended): Allows users basic access to selected features such as Help Desk, and facilitates communication.
Marketing: These cookies are used to provide advertising that is tailored to the user and their particular interests. Marketing cookies can also be used to restrict the number of times an advertisement is displayed and to measure the efficacy of advertising campaigns. Advertising networks usually place marketing cookies with the website operator’s permission.
Statistics: These cookies allow website operators to identify technical issues and understand how a site is performing. They can also be used to see how visitors interact with the site and usually do not collect information that identifies visitors.
Preferences: These cookies allow the website to keep track of your choices (e.g. region, user name, language) in order to provide more personalized features. A website may, for example, provide local traffic information based on data stored about the current location of the user.
Name: Enter the name of the cookie, exactly as it appears in the HTML code.
Domain: Enter the domain of the cookie.
Platform: Add the name of the platform or the company who provides this cookie.
Note: This field automatically inherits the language value.
Description: Enter a short description of the cookie. If needed for this step, use a web search engine search for the cookie name.
Duration: Enter the duration of the cookie.
Delete (trashcan icon): To remove a cookie, click the trashcan icon to delete the row.
Error indicators:
A red exclamation point on a row means that there is incomplete cookie data. Cookies that are not complete cannot be published or filtered, and are added to the user's browser automatically. It is important to complete the cookie setup.
A yellow question mark on a row means that the cookie was detected in previous scans but is not present in the most recent scan. Click the question mark to open a dialog box and handle the issues. Choose:
Show anyway: If the cookie was missed by the scan and you are sure the cookie is present, this is a good option to select. The cookie remains on the list.
Ignore & hide: Choose to ignore this cookie for now and hide it from the list. This is a good option if you suspect the cookie may appear again on the next scan.
Save. A dialog box opens with the message, "Cookie Overview Saved".
Notes:
3rd party cookies that the scan finds have a domain and a path. These are unique identifiers for the cookie.
Users cannot edit the name, domain, or path of cookies that the scanner finds.
Users cannot manually create a cookie with a name that already exists for a cookie that is found by the scan.
For more information, see the User Guide chapter:
Manage Cookies with the Scan
This section gives instructions on how to manage cookies that the Monsido scan detects.
To view the cookies that the Monsido scan found:
From the Dashboard, click Data Privacy (lock icon) on the menu bar.
Select Consent Overview from the menu on the left-hand side of the page.
The Consent Overview page opens. This is an overview of user cookie acceptance rates, as well as the consent log that stores the cookie categories that the users have consented to.
In the menu on the left, click Consent Overview. The list expands.
Select:
Cookie Acceptance Rate: Select Cookie Acceptance Rate. The Cookie Acceptance Rate page opens and shows an overview of customer behavior towards cookies on the website.
The Acceptance Rate by Category page shows acceptance rates by cookie categories.
The Overall Acceptance Rate page shows a percentage of cookies accepted, as well as a graph chart with acceptance rates over time.
Consent Log: This page lists IP addresses that interacted with the cookies on the website, shown in chart format. The log is kept on Monsido servers for two years.
The column headers are:IP Address: The IP address of the computer that browsed the site.
UUID: The unique ID for the user device that received the cookie.
Note: This ID is gone from the user's device when the cookies on that device are deleted by the user. When the UUID is gone, the user can no longer request the record of the cookie consent.
Location: The country of origin that the user accessed the site from.
Data Regulation: The applicable regulation, GDPR, CCPA, or both.
Accepted cookies: The cookie categories that the user accepted.
Date: The date that the user accepted the cookies.
Cookie Overview: This page gives information about the cookie acceptance rates by users. The Cookie Overview page opens.
Note: If this is the first time that the scan populates cookies, the list only shows manually added cookies and those that are present in the Monsido database of common cookies.
Scan Domain: Click to start a cookie scan. The Scan in progress message appears and the scan icon spins until the scan is complete.
Include Cookies:
Cookies that the scan detects are in the cookie list but may be only partially complete. The icons indicate:
A green check mark indicates that the cookie is a common cookie and our system populated the fields from our internal repository.
A red exclamation point on a row means that there is incomplete cookie data. Cookies that are not complete cannot be published or filtered, and are added to the user's browser automatically. It is important to complete the cookie setup.
A yellow question mark on a row means that the cookie was detected in previous scans but is not present in the most recent scan. Click the question mark to open a dialog box and handle the issues. Choose:
Show anyway: Even though the cookie was missed by the scan, if you are sure this cookie is present then select this option. The cookie remains on the list.
Ignore & hide: Choose to ignore this cookie for now and hide it from the list. Choose this option if the cookie may appear again on the next scan.
Delete: Click to delete the cookie from the list. It will appear again after a new scan if the scanner still finds it.
Note: On the left side of the cookie, an icon of a person pointing indicates a cookie that was added to the list manually.
Category: Click the drop-down arrow and select the category for the cookie. The categories are:
Essential: These cookies are required to enable basic website functionality. Note: Essential cookies cannot be deselected by the user.
Basic (Recommended): Allows users basic access to selected features such as Help Desk, and facilitates communication.
Marketing: These cookies are used to provide advertising that is tailored to the user and their particular interests. Marketing cookies can also be used to restrict the number of times an advertisement is displayed and to measure the efficacy of advertising campaigns. Advertising networks usually place marketing cookies with the website operator’s permission.
Statistics: These cookies allow website operators to identify technical issues and understand how a site is performing. They can also be used to see how visitors interact with the site and usually do not collect information that identifies visitors.
Preferences: These cookies allow the website to keep track of your choices (e.g. region, user name, language) in order to provide more personalized features. A website may, for example, provide local traffic information based on data stored about the current location of the user.
Name: The name of the cookie, exactly as it appears in the HTML code.
Domain: The domain for the cookie.
Description: Enter a short description of the cookie. If needed for this step, use a web search engine search for the cookie name.
Duration: The duration of the cookie.
Delete: To remove a cookie, click the trashcan icon to delete the row.
+ Add a cookie: Click to insert a new empty row for a new cookie.
Save. A dialog box opens with the message, "Cookie Overview Saved".
Notes:
3rd party cookies that are found by the scan have a domain and a path listed. These are unique identifiers for the cookie.
It is not possible to edit the name, domain, or path of cookies found by the scanner.
It is not possible to manually create a cookie with a name that already exists for a cookie found by the scan.
For more information, see the User Guide chapter:
UI Overview video: This video walkthrough explains the cookie overview setup.
Add the Monsido Script
This section gives instructions on how to add the Monsido script.
To add the Monsido script to the HEAD tag of the website:
Inside the script section, click Copy Script (icon of two papers) to copy the script.
Important! The script is unique for each domain. It will not work to copy/paste from one to another. Websites ending in .com and .eu, for example, are considered different domains and it does not work to copy/paste the Monsido script. The script needs to be configured separately for each domain.
In the HTML editor, paste the script into the HEAD tag or place it before the </body> tag on every page.
Note: If Consent Manager is activated, the script must be in the HEAD tag so that it can detect the cookies.
Add HTML Attributes.
HTML attributes must be added to content elements on your website if you only want them to load once a consent choice has been provided by the visitor. For example, if you are using Google Analytics on your website and only want the script to load once a visitor has accepted Statistics cookies, you will need to mark up the Google Analytics script with an HTML attribute.
For more information and instructions, see the Monsido for Developers article:
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Cookieless Tracking
The Monsido Statistics module normally applies a cookie to the browser of the visitor. It is possible to remove this, so that Monsido can still track the same data from visitors who refuse Statistics cookies on the cookie banner.
Select Script Setup Guide in the drop-down list. The Domain Setup page opens.
Enable Monsido Statistics.
For more information, see the User Guide article:
Statistics.
Turn on the Enable Cookieless Tracking switch.
For more information, see the User Guide articles:Configure the Monsido script as usual.
Paste the script to the website HTML and then publish the site.
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User Experience
This section gives information about how website users accept and reject cookies and how they interact with the Monsido Consent Manager cookie banner.
When the Monsido Consent Manager setup is done, the cookie banner is on the website landing page. Users have to interact with the banner to get to all of the website features. There are three different types of banners that the user might see.
For more instructions, see the User Guide chapter:
Cookie Banner GDPR
The text on the GDPR banner informs that: "We and our selected partners would like to use cookies or similar technologies to collect information about you for statistical, functional, and marketing purposes. You can give us your consent for specific purposes by selecting the options below and you can withdraw your consent at any time via the cookie icon."
Only Essential Cookies: Click to decline all cookies except for Essential cookies (required).
Note: The website owner can instead choose to call the Only Essential Cookies button Reject All Cookies instead. This setting is explained in the setup section.
Accept All Cookies: Click to accept all cookies in all categories.
Cookie Preferences: Click to open the Advanced Cookie Options window. Toggle the switch OFF to decline the cookies in the category, or ON to accept the cookies in the category.
Essential (Required): These cookies are required for basic website functionality.
Note: Essential cookies cannot be deselected.
Basic (Recommended): Allows users to access basic selected features such as Help Desk, and facilitates communication.
Marketing: These cookies provide advertising that is tailored to the user and their particular interests. Marketing cookies can also be used to restrict the number of times an advertisement is displayed and to measure the efficacy of advertising campaigns. Advertising networks usually place marketing cookies with the website operator’s permission.
Statistics: These cookies allow website operators to identify technical issues and understand how a site is performing. They can also be used to see how visitors interact with the site and usually do not collect information that identifies visitors.
Preferences: These cookies allow the website to keep track of your choices (e.g. region, user name, language) in order to provide more personalized features. A website may, for example, provide local traffic information based on data stored about the current location of the user.
Note: For each category selected, a message on the main page will give information on the cookie category that has been consented to.
Read our Cookie Policy: Navigates to the company cookie policy (provided by the website owner in Consent Manager Setup).
Cookie Overview: Opens the Cookie Overview window, where cookies are listed per category.
Name: The name of the cookie, exactly as it appears in the HTML code.
Description: A short description of the cookie.
Expires: The duration of the cookie.
Cookie Banner CCPA
The text on the CCPA banner informs that: "This website and selected partners use cookies or similar technologies to collect information about you and enhance your user experience. If you wish that your personal information is not shared with third parties, please click Do not sell my personal information."
The Do not sell my personal information link redirects to the website owner's preferences page, where the user can opt out.
The links:
Read our Cookie Policy: Navigates to the company cookie policy (provided by the website owner in Consent Manager Setup).
Cookie Overview: Opens the Cookie Overview window, where cookies are listed per category.
Name: The name of the cookie, exactly as it appears in the HTML code.
Description: A short description of the cookie.
Expires: The duration of the cookie.
For information about how to set up tracking for visitors who refuse all cookies, see the User Guide Article:
Cookie Banner GDPR and CCPA
The text on the GDPR + CCPA banner informs that: "This website and selected partners gather personal information. You can give consent and set your preferences by selecting the options below. If you wish that your personal information is not shared with third parties, please click Do not sell my personal information."
The Do not sell my personal information link redirects to the website owner's preferences page, where the user can opt out.
Only Essential Cookies: Click to decline all cookies except for Essential cookies (required).
Note: The website owner can instead choose to call the Only Essential Cookies button Reject All Cookies. This setting is explained in the setup section.
Accept All Cookies: Click to accept all cookies in all categories.
Cookie Preferences: Click to open the Advanced Cookie Options window. Toggle the switch OFF to decline the cookies in the category, or ON to accept the cookies in the category.
Essential (Required): These cookies are required for basic website functionality.
Note: Essential cookies cannot be deselected.
Basic (Recommended): Allows users to access basic selected features such as Help Desk, and facilitates communication.
Marketing: These cookies provide advertising that is tailored to the user and their particular interests. Marketing cookies can also be used to restrict the number of times an advertisement is displayed and to measure the efficacy of advertising campaigns. Advertising networks usually place marketing cookies with the website operator’s permission.
Statistics: These cookies allow website operators to identify technical issues and understand how a site is performing. They can also be used to see how visitors interact with the site and usually do not collect information that identifies visitors.
Preferences: These cookies allow the website to keep track of user preferences (e.g. region, user name, language) in order to provide more personalized features. A website may, for example, provide local traffic information based on data stored about the current location of the user.
Note: For each category selected, a message on the main page gives information about it.
Cookie Acceptance Rate
This page gives an overview of website visitor behavior with cookies on the website.
Select Cookie Acceptance Rate. The Cookie Acceptance Rate page opens and shows an overview of customer behavior towards cookies on the website.
The Acceptance Rate by Category page shows acceptance rates by cookie categories.
The Overall Acceptance Rate page shows a percentage of cookies accepted, as well as a graph chart with acceptance rates over time.
Note: The timeline becomes more accurate with time, as the first scan may not have much data to show.
Consent Log
This page lists IP addresses that interacted with the cookies on the website, shown in chart format. The log is kept on Monsido servers for two years.
The column headers are:
IP Address: The IP address of the computer that browsed the site.
UUID: The unique ID for the user device that received the cookie.
Note: This ID is gone from the user's device when the cookies on that device are deleted by the user. When the UUID is gone, the user can no longer request the record of the cookie consent.
Location: The country of origin that the user accessed the site from.
Data Regulation: The applicable regulation, GDPR, CCPA, or both.
Accepted cookies: The cookie categories that the user accepted.
Date: The date that the user accepted the cookies.
Cookie Overview
The Cookie Overview is where the website administrator handles the cookies. This section gives instructions for the website administrator on how to add cookies via the scan, add cookies manually, and categorize cookies.
Save the page and then save again.
A dialog gives the option to edit the cookie settings. Click Data Privacy to update now, or click I'll do it later to exit without setting it up now.
The Data Privacy module opens. If you selected I'll do it later, navigate to the Privacy module with these steps:
From the main page, click to select the domain. The domain dashboard opens.
Click Data Privacy (a lock icon), on the top menu bar.
In the Data Privacy module, click Consent Overview -> Cookie Overview.
This page is where the website administrator handles the cookies. There are three panes:
Include cookies: Enter the cookie information manually, or populate with the Monsido scan. Manually entered cookies have an icon of a person pointing.
Automatic cookie scan: Start a manual scan for cookies, or toggle the switch to ON to scan for cookies automatically during the next scheduled scan. The icon spins while a scan is in progress.
Script setup: To include the cookie overview on the webpage, create the overview. In the HTML editor, paste the script into the HEAD tag.
For more information, see the User Guide chapter:
Note: This is not a required step. If no script is installed, the overview will show up as a pop-up window instead.
Additional Resources
For more information, see the User Guide chapters:
Consent Manager for Developers (including SDK information)
See Monsido for Developers for documentation and advanced help files including SDK information for developers.
For definitions and explanations of acronyms and abbreviations used in the Monsido User Guide, see:
For further assistance, contact the Monsido support team at support@monsido.com or use the Monsido chat and help features inside the application.