Cookie Policy - User analytics

[Rachel101]

We've implemented a very basic banner on our website that is just providing notice that there are cookies on the website with a link to privacy policy, etc. There is only a button to click "accept".

If someone does not click "accept" on the banner and they complete an entire visit, browse multiple pages, etc without clicking accept, will the cookie still collect and send tracking data on the visitor to hubspot?

I looked at the chrome console cookies in an icognito browser and noticed that before clicking accept the hubspotutk cookie was present, but after clicking "accept" on the banner _hs_opt_out and _hs_initial_opt_in were added. I don't know how the presence or lack of these two additional cookies affect what data is sent to hubspot.

Thank you for any insight on this.

[mariomaier]

Hi @Rachel101, 

If the user opts out HubSpot will not collect any analytics data (web analytics) from him - even when the user converts later trough a from - no analytics data from this session will be fetched with the contact conversion data. 

Attached you find a great knowledgebase article which describes each cookie and his functions in detail: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/reports/what-cookies-does-hubspot-set-in-a-visitor-s-browser

Hope that helps. BR Mario 

P.S:  Please mark this answer as a solution when you found it helpful. 

@kvlschaefer - Thx for tagging. 

[Rachel101]

Hi @mariomaier, thank you for your reply, but this isn't quite answering my question.

My banner does not have a decline option. I only want to notify visitors that there are cookies being used on the website. If someone does not click accept and they just ignore this banner the whole time they browse our website, will the cookies still collect data and put the analytics data through to the contacts? Or is someone who abstains from clicking accept equivlent to someone clicking "decline"?

My assumption after browsing through the hubspot support articles was that data would be collected and attributed to contacts regardless of clicking "accept" on the banner, but I have seen a decline in paid ad performace since adding this banner to the site. It could be another external factor, but I need to learn more to know if I can rule this out. I've also noticed an analytics activity appearing on contact timelines: "contact x accepted cookie tracking on www.website.com"

[kvlschaefer]

Hi @Rachel101,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community! 

I wanted to tag in a couple of subject matter experts to see if they have any input on this matter:

Hi @Phil_Vallender, @LMeert, @mariomaier, @mtruss  - do you have any advice for @Rachel101? 

Thanks!

Best,

Kristen