Blog

The pre-launch consent audit: 12 checks before your new site goes live

A redesigned or rebuilt site quietly resets your consent setup. The twelve checks that catch banner misconfigurations, orphaned tags, and tracking that fires before choice, before visitors do. September 28, 2026

Dark pattern consent banners are getting fined: what the 2026 decisions punish

Regulators spent 2026 fining consent banners that nudge, hide, and exhaust visitors into clicking accept. The design tricks that drew penalties and how to audit your own banner. September 27, 2026

First-party cookies can violate consent too

First-party cookies are not automatically exempt from consent rules. How analytics, ad tech and plugins use first-party storage for tracking, and how to audit it. September 26, 2026

Your cookie banner said no, but your server sent the data anyway

Server-side tracking moves data collection off the browser and out of sight of your consent banner. How to find these backend flows, disclose them, and bring them under real consent. September 25, 2026

Your scan found trackers nobody recognizes: what now?

Mystery trackers in a scan report are normal, not evidence of a breach. How to identify them, trace them to their source, and decide whether to disclose, block, or remove them.

Shadow trackers: how new marketing tools quietly add cookies to your site

Every new marketing tool someone adds to your site usually brings its own cookies and trackers along, and most of them start firing before anyone updates the consent setup. A scan from three months ago will not catch the

Why do trackers keep firing before consent?

Trackers fire before consent because tag managers and embeds load on their own schedule, independent of the consent banner.

How do I find out what cookies my website sets?

The fastest way is a browser check: open your browser's developer tools, visit your own site, and look at the cookies set under Application or.

How often should you scan your website for cookies?

At minimum, scan after every site change that touches scripts, plugins, themes, or embeds, and on a recurring schedule even when nothing obvious.