Cookie consent banner API – Possibility to set consent status by category via JavaScript

[arinker]

To embed third-party content (YouTube videos, tweets...) in a GDPR-compliant way and with a good UX, it would be helpful to provide the ability to set cookie consent status by category via JavaScript.

Then it would be possible to provide a simple switch within a gdpr-third-party-placeholder-info-text instead of having to call the cookie settings. 

Example

On major news portals, such as www.spiegel.de or www.sueddeutsche.de, you can flip a switch right on the content.

API Suggestion

The API could look like this:

• Give analytics cookies consent:

_hsp.push(['setPrivacyConsent', consent.categories.analytics = true]);

• Revoke analytics cookies consent:

_hsp.push(['setPrivacyConsent', consent.categories.analytics = false]);

• Give advertising cookies consent:

_hsp.push(['setPrivacyConsent', consent.categories.advertising = true]);

• Revoke advertising cookies consent:

_hsp.push(['setPrivacyConsent', consent.categories.advertising = false]);

• Give functionality cookies consent:

_hsp.push(['setPrivacyConsent', consent.categories.functionality = true]);

• Revoke functionality cookies consent:

_hsp.push(['setPrivacyConsent', consent.categories.functionality = false]);

Current situation

The following example and screenshots show the current situation. It would be better to have the checkbox directly in the third-party placeholder, without having to open and click through the cookie settings: https://www.hr-heute.com/magazin/eignungsdiagnostik-fehler-bei-der-personalauswahl-minimieren

Final Thoughts

Surely you could build a parallel solution next to the Cookiebanner. However, this brings the following disadvantages. Visitors who have agreed to all cookies must agree again. HubSpot's native cookie scanning and blocking solution must be bypassed, and cookie setting, deleting, and blocking must be set up manually for each third-party-embedded.

[magmar]

Great idea! I can only confirm the problems we are facing when using a "proper" consent management like usercentrics. As long as there is no API to SET cookie consents programmatically, it is impossible to control scripts/ad pixels that have been added directly in HubSpot. These are currently controlled either by the general Cookie-Banner (yes or no for all) or by category, if you are using the banner with categories. However, if you do not use the built-in Cookie-Banner of HubSpot all services will execute by default. 

The only current workaround if you are using an external Consent Management System would be to make the banner invisible, click and select categories programmatically, which is a pain.

As opposed to other CMP systems, the HubSpot Cookie-Banner doesn't offer built-in content blocking, there are no pre-built services or cookie information for common services like Google Analytics etc. and formatting is a pain. You have to use absolute links, so you have to change all links in the banner when working with links to pages on a staging domain.

@hubspot Please provide an API that allows us to set consents and control integrations! Otherwise, it is currently impossible to use integrations like HubSpot Ads with an ads pixel, which you need to track conversions for contacts. Conversions from e.g. GTM or directly in Google Ads won't count converted contacts based on your ads campaign in HubSpot.