Sometimes you may want to turn off visitor cookies and not use them to collect data. It could be because you want to stay compliant with some privacy laws or for other reasons.
Without using cookies, your data will be less accurate. It’s because cookies store visitor data like the visitor ID. This ID helps to recognize returning visitors and their sessions. At the end of this article, we’ll show you how your data can be affected by turning off cookies.
To turn off cookies, follow these steps:
- Go to Menu > Administration.
- Navigate to Sites & apps.
- On the left, pick a site or app you want to work with.
- Navigate to Privacy.
- Ask visitors for consent needs to be turned off.
- Turn off Use visitor cookies.
- Click Save.
Note: Some triggers in Tag Manager create cookies to function correctly. If you use one of the following conditions in triggers, we’ll set a cookie:
- Event condition > Traffic source
- Event condition > Returning visitor
- Event condition > Campaign
- Event condition > External referrer
- Multiplicity > Fire tag once per session
- Multiplicity > Fire tag multiple times per session, excluding first
- Multiplicity > Fire tag once per page view
If you don’t want to use these cookies, don’t set these conditions in the trigger. More about cookies
Comparison of options
We’ll now show you how your data might change when cookies are deactivated. We’ll also compare different data collection methods, helping you understand how combining them can influence your data.
| Cookies & session ID | No cookies | No session ID | No cookies & session ID | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mechanisms used to collect data | ||||
| First-party cookies | (1) | (1) | ||
| Local storage | ||||
| Session ID | (2) | |||
| Visitor’s IP address | Yes / No (3) | Yes / No (3) | ||
| Visitor ID | ||||
| Collected data | ||||
| Capture all traffic | ||||
| New vs. returning visitors | ||||
| Visitor’s session | (4) | |||
| Visitor’s location | Latitude, Longitude, Organization, Provider, City, Region, Country, Continent | Latitude, Longitude, Organization, Provider, City, Region, Country, Continent | Latitude, Longitude, Organization, Provider, City, Region, Country, Continent | Latitude, Longitude, Organization, Provider, City, Region, Country, Continent |
| Events | ||||
| Traffic sources | ||||
| Channel attribution | Last-click, position-based, first-click, last-non-direct-click, time-decay, linear and custom models | Last-click | Last-click, position-based, first-click, last-non-direct-click, time-decay, linear and custom models | |
| Privacy laws | ||||
| Compliant with | Countries without privacy laws, CCPA (5), HIPAA (7) |
Cookie laws, HIPAA (7) | Cookie laws, HIPAA (7) | GDPR, UK GDPR/PECR (6), TTDSG (6), HIPAA (7) |
- Some triggers in Tag Manager set cookies to function correctly.
- We create a session ID to recognize the visitor’s session. We only use it for 30 minutes since the last event.
- You can mask visitors’ IP addresses under Administration > Sites & apps > Privacy > Mask IP addresses. An IP address gives you a visitor’s location. Masking it removes the selected number of bytes from the address before saving it to the database. Nobody will ever see the full address. Masking an address can enhance visitor privacy, as you won’t be able to see their precise location.
- Each event is a new session.
- You need to add an opt-out form (“do not sell my personal data”).
- Assuming the product is set up to avoid storing additional device-level information, such as screen resolution or browser plugins. You can set it in Administration > Sites & apps > Privacy > Don’t collect visitor’s device data (on).
- If you have the Enterprise plan and have signed a BAA with us.