Manage consent settings (web)

gtag.js

The following sections provide examples of using gtag.js to:

• Set consent defaults
• Update consent state
• Integrate with asynchronous consent management platforms

Set consent defaults

The default value for consent state is granted if it is not explicitly set. We recommend setting a default value for each storage type you are using. The consent state values in this article are only examples. You are responsible for making sure that default consent mode is set for each of your measurement products to match your organization's policy.

To adjust the default measurement capabilities, call the gtag('consent', 'default', ...) command on every page of your site before any commands that send measurement data (such as config or event). For example, to deny ad_storage and analytics_storage by default, specify the settings in consent parameters:

gtag('consent', 'default', {
  'ad_storage': 'denied',
  'analytics_storage': 'denied'
});

Update consent state

When users specify consent, or change their consent choice, update measurement behavior. Consent status will only be changed for fields that are provided to the update call. In the example below, only the ad_storage value was changed. If analytics_storage was set to denied, it would still be denied after this call. It is up to you to ensure the correct values are set for all consent types. For full details on supported types, see consent in the API reference.

Pass in updates as soon as possible on every page. After a user grants consent, persist their choice and call the update command accordingly on subsequent pages. Because consent mode does not store consent choices, it is also imperative that the consent management solution issue a consent mode update command based on the user's consent choices as early as possible on every page after consent is given.

The example uses hardcoded ‘granted’/’denied’ values, but in practice, these should be determined at runtime using the user’s actual consent collected by the consent management solution. The following code grants consent when user agrees to allow advertising cookies:

gtag('consent', 'update', {
  'ad_storage': 'granted'
});

Integrate with asynchronous consent management platforms

If your CMP loads asynchronously, it might not always run before your Google Tags. To handle such situations, specify wait_for_update along with a millisecond value to control how long to wait before data is sent.

For example, to deny ad_storage on a particular page by default, but to allow your CMP to update consent status, use wait_for_update. In the following code, ad_storage defaults to denied, and the consent tool is given 500 milliseconds to call gtag('consent', 'update', ...) before tags fire:

gtag('consent', 'default', {
'ad_storage': 'denied',
'wait_for_update': 500
})

Tag Manager

For Tag Manager implementations, we recommend using a consent mode template from the Community Template Gallery to manage consent. See Create a consent mode template for information on creating your own template using Tag Manager consent APIs.

Notes:

• Consent mode implementations on sites that leverage GTM for tagging should use the GTM-specific APIs for managing consent states, setDefaultConsentState and updateConsentState. The gtagSet API can be used to optionally set the ads_data_redaction and URL passthrough settings as appropriate.

• The gtag('consent','update',...) method should not be used instead of updateConsentState because it would be queued after all other pending messages and may not be processed before the next event begins. For more information, see How data layer information is processed.

gtag.js

The order of the code here is vital. If your consent code is called out of order, consent defaults will not work. Depending on business requirements, specifics may vary, but in general, code should run in the following order:

1. Load the Google tag. This is your default snippet code. The default snippet should be updated (see below) to include a call to gtag('consent', 'default', ...). If you don't set any defaults, all tagging functionality will be enabled.

2. Load your consent solution. If your consent solution loads asynchronously, see Integrate with asynchronous consent management platforms for how to make sure this happens in the correct order.

3. If not handled by your consent solution, call gtag('consent', 'update', ...) after the user indicates consent.

<script>
// Define dataLayer and the gtag function.
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}

// Default ad_storage to 'denied' as a placeholder
// Determine actual values based on your own requirements
gtag('consent', 'default', {
  'ad_storage': 'denied'
});
</script>
<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) -->
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=TAG_ID">
</script>
<script>
  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}

  gtag('js', new Date());
  gtag('config', 'TAG_ID');
</script>

<!-- Update this section based on your business requirements. -->
<script>
  function consentGranted() {
    gtag('consent', 'update', {
      'ad_storage': 'granted'
    });
  }
</script>

<body>
  ...
  <button onclick="consentGranted">Yes</button>
  ...
</body>

Tag Manager

For sites using Tag Manager, we recommend using a CMP to handle updates of visitor consent choices. CMPs provide templates in the Community Template Gallery to create a tag for managing consent mode.

If using a template is not possible, you can instead update the code on your page as follows. The order of the code here is vital. If your consent code is called out of order, consent defaults will not work.

<script>
  // Define dataLayer and the gtag function.
  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}

  // Default ad_storage to 'denied'.
  gtag('consent', 'default', {
    'ad_storage': 'denied'
  });
</script>

<!-- Google Tag Manager -->
<script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':
new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],
j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src=
'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);
})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-XXXXXX');</script>
<!-- End Google Tag Manager -->

<!-- Update this section based on your business requirements -->
<script>
  function consentGranted() {
    gtag('consent', 'update', {
      'ad_storage': 'granted'
    });
  }
</script>

<body>
  ...
  <button onclick="consentGranted">Yes</button>
  ...
</body>

gtag.js

The following example sets analytics_storage to denied for users from Spain and Alaska, and sets ad_storage to denied for all users.

gtag('consent', 'default', {
  'analytics_storage': 'denied',
  'region': ['ES', 'US-AK']
});

gtag('consent', 'default', {
  'ad_storage': 'denied'
});

Most specific takes precedence

If two default consent commands occur on the same page with values for a region and subregion, the one with a more specific region will take effect. For example, if you have ad_storage set to granted for the region US and ad_storage set to denied for the region US-CA, a visitor from California will have the more specific US-CA setting take effect. For this example, that would mean a visitor from US-CA would have ad_storage set to denied.

Tag Manager

If you are using a template to create your tag, it may have the controls to set region-specific behaviour. If you are building a template tag on your own, see Create a consent mode template for more information on setting region-specific behavior.

gtag.js

To enable this capability, set the url_passthrough parameter to true:

gtag('set', 'url_passthrough', true);

Tag Manager

If you are using a template to create your tag, it may have the controls to set URL passthrough. If you are building a template tag on your own, see Create a consent mode template for more information on setting URL passthrough using the gtagSet custom template API.

Or, you can use the following options to set it in Conversion Linker and/or analytics tags

For Google Ads and Floodlight tags:

To enable this capability, create (or use an existing) conversion linker tag and ensure Enable linking on all page URLs is checked. See basic setup for instructions on how to create a conversion linker tag.

For Google Analytics tags:

1. In Tag Manager, navigate to Fields to Set:
   • For Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration tags, select Tag Configuration > Fields to Set.
   • For Google Analytics: Universal Analytics tags, use a Google Analytics settings variable and select Variable Configuration > More Settings > Fields to Set.
2. When the Fields to Set section is expanded, click Add Row.
3. For Field Name, enter the correct value:
   • For Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration tags, enter url_passthrough.
   • For Google Analytics: Universal Analytics tags using the Google Analytics settings variables, enter urlPassthrough.
4. For Value, enter 'true'.
5. Save the tag and publish.

Alternatively, you can set the url_passthrough parameter to true on every page of your site before the GTM install snippet.

window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){window.dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('set', 'url_passthrough', true);

When using URL passthrough, a few query parameters may be appended to links as users navigate through pages on your website:

• gclid
• dclid
• gclsrc
• _gl
• wbraid

For best results, ensure that:

1. Redirects on your site pass all the above query parameters.
2. Your analytics tools ignore these parameters in page URLs.
3. These parameters do not interfere with your site behavior.

gtag.js

To further redact your ads data when ad_storage is denied, set ads_data_redaction to true.

gtag('set', 'ads_data_redaction', true);

When ads_data_redaction is true and ad_storage is denied, ad click identifiers sent in network requests by Google Ads and Floodlight tags will be redacted. Network requests will also be sent through a cookieless domain.

Tag Manager

If you are using a template to create your tag, it may have the controls to further redact ads data. If you are building a template tag on your own, see Create a consent mode template for more information on redacting ads data.