A consent management platform is a tool or SaaS product that people or businesses with websites can use to help manage nearly every part of the user consent collection journey for cookies and other tracking technologies.
This is important for legal reasons because data privacy laws exist on every continent.
It also enables you to give your site visitors real choice, control, and transparency regarding how their personal information is being tracked and used by your website.
What Does a Consent Management Platform Actually Do?
A consent management platform helps websites obtain adequate consent from website visitors, meaning it aligns with legal requirements outlined by privacy laws like the General Data Protection Regulation or California Consumer Privacy Act.
In the table below, I explain common features of CMPs and what each feature does.
| Common CMP Feature | What It Does |
| Website Scanner | Scans your site for cookies and other trackers, then categorizes and names them and explains what each one does in a scan report. |
| Cookie Policy Generator | Automatically generates a fully formatted cookie policy that names all categories of cookies your site is using based on the scan report, which can be linked to a cookie banner and your website footer. Privacy laws require you to present this information to website visitors. |
| Cookie Banner Generator | Customize a cookie consent banner that matches your site’s branding and adapts based on where users come from, meaning an EU user sees a GDPR-aligned banner while someone in California sees a CCPA-aligned banner. These often require little to no coding. Technical upkeep is maintained by the third-party software owner. |
| Consent Preference Center | Provides you with a way to enable your site visitors to easily change their minds after they’ve interacted with your consent banner, and either rescind or give their consent at any time. This is required by laws like the GDPR. |
| Consent Logs | Keeps a record of a user’s consent choices based on how they interact with the consent banner, and updates if the user interacts with the preference center. This is important if you are ever audited by a supervisory authority, and it helps you follow through on requests from users to follow through on their privacy rights. |
| Embeddable DSAR Form | Provides website users with an easy way to submit a request to follow through on their privacy rights. Like consent banners, which enables them to follow through on opt in and opt out rights, this form also helps them easily submit requests for additional rights, like accessing their information or correcting a detail about themselves. |
Why Do So Many Websites Use a Consent Management Platform?
For many websites, having a consent management platform is a convenient, affordable, and easy way to align with legal requirements outlined by applicable privacy laws, like the General Data Protection Regulation or the California Consumer Privacy Act.
This can include complex obligations, like enabling individual users from different regions to opt into or out of specific types of data processing, for example, targeted advertising, the sale or sharing of their information, or the collection of their sensitive data.
Rather than paying expensive attorney fees or spending hours of time on coding and technical upkeep and maintenance, website owners can rely on using a CMP to handle the bulk of these responsibilities for you at an affordable monthly or annual rate.
It also gives your site visitors more choice and control over what happens to their personal data and enables you to transparently inform them about what cookies your site uses, why, what they do, and how long they’ll be placed on their browser or device for.
This is important because there’s a real person behind the data being collected by websites. People care about their personal privacy, and it deserves to be respected.
I Own a Website. Do I Need a Consent Management Platform?
If your website uses cookies or other trackers, it’s a good idea to consider using a consent management platform to simplify managing the user consent journey.
If you use third party services, like Googly Analytics, Google Ads, Meta Pixel, and even social media sharing embeds, understand that these all place cookies, pixels, or trackers on the browsers of users who visit your site.
As the site owner, it’s your responsibility to inform your users about those trackers through proper channels, like a consent banner and cookie policy.
Will Using a CMP Impact My Website?
Using a CMP can impact businesses in several positive ways. It helps you align with complex legal obligations and can enhance and maintain consumer trust.
But many businesses worry about how CMPs impact data and analytics. Instead of getting information from every person that lands on a page, a website using a consent management platform only gathers data from those who allow it.
However, think of it this way: if the information being collected is willingly given, it is more likely to be useful, higher quality data.
Anyone who’s ever had to clean up a large dataset can understand the value of this.
Similarly, a user who chooses to opt into receiving targeted advertising from your site is expressing an interest in seeing these personalized ads.
This is ideal because it means the users receiving them want to be receiving them, which makes the audience more specifically targeted to your brand.
What Features Should I Look For in a CMP?
At the very least, consent management platforms usually include a cookie banner, a preference center, and consent logs.
But a good CMP like Termly’s has additional essential features, including:
- Script auto blocking: Blocks all scripts and cookies from loading on a new user’s browser until after they’ve interacted with the consent banner.
- Regional consent rules: Enables you to present users in different regions with different configurations of a consent banner, which helps you align with privacy laws and maintain complete data logs.
- Multi language supports: Presents the consent banner to your users in their preferred language, which enhances transparency and helps ensure they can easily understand it.
- Scheduled automatic website scans: Schedule weekly or monthly website scans to ensure your cookie policy is always accurate and up to date.
- Cookie policy generator: Automatically create and update your cookie policy based on your scan report, so your users always have access to the most up-to-date and accurate details.
Let Termly take care of the technical aspects of managing user consent, try our Consent Management Platform today.
Reviewed by Masha Komnenic CIPP/E, CIPM, CIPT, FIP
Masha Komnenic is a legal counsel and Termly’s Director of Global Privacy, who received her law degree from Belgrade University. She specializes in implementing, monitoring, and auditing business compliance with privacy regulations (HIPAA, PIPEDA, ePrivacy Directive, GDPR, CCPA, POPIA, LGPD).
Read all posts reviewed by Masha Komnenic CIPP/E, CIPM, CIPT, FIP