What does the GDPR cookie banner block before consent?
CookieConsentHQ's opt-in model blocks non-essential cookies and known trackers until the visitor accepts. The blocking behavior begins before acceptance, subject to the platform's ability to identify and control the trackers installed on the page.
Under the EU ePrivacy rules, storing or accessing information on a visitor's device generally requires consent unless an applicable exception applies. The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) similarly explains that prior consent is generally required for storage and access technologies outside the relevant exceptions.
CookieConsentHQ provides automatic blocking for known trackers on every plan. Coverage should still be checked against the actual scripts and cookies used by your website, particularly hardcoded tracking code.
The cookie scanner loads pages before consent and revisits the first few after Accept all, helping you examine the difference. Scans have page limits, so their findings should be interpreted within the pages visited.
For further explanation of the issue, read Cookies set before consent.
What choices does the banner give visitors?
The banner offers Accept all, Reject all and Customize. Its default design places Reject beside Accept with equal visual weight, while Customize opens the available category choices.
Visitors can make a choice covering all optional categories or select categories individually. CookieConsentHQ includes functional, analytics and marketing categories, allowing the banner to present distinct types of use rather than a single combined decision.
The default button presentation reflects a concern identified by France's data protection authority, the CNIL. In its December 2024 announcement, the regulator described misleading banner designs that made rejecting cookies harder than accepting them.
Equal-weight controls address one part of banner presentation. The website must still provide appropriate information about its cookies and ensure the installed technologies follow the visitor's choices.
CookieConsentHQ's default buttons give visitors visible acceptance, rejection and customization options without requiring them to find rejection inside another settings screen.
Which countries use the opt-in model by default?
CookieConsentHQ's global regional preset selects opt-in for the EU and EEA, UK, Switzerland, Brazil and Quebec. The same preset uses US opt-out rules and a notice model elsewhere.
This is a product configuration that assigns consent models to visitor locations. It should not be read as a statement that every law in the named regions has identical requirements.
The banner uses location information provided by Cloudflare's edge network at request time. Each applicable region rule determines the consent model and whether Global Privacy Control is honored.
All plans include the three regional presets: the mixed global configuration, opt-in everywhere and US opt-out everywhere. Custom rules by country, US state and Canadian province begin on Starter.
The geo-targeting feature explains those controls. If you need a uniform opt-in experience, the opt-in-everywhere preset provides that configuration without requiring custom region rules.
Choose the regional model based on your site's activities and the rules that apply to them, rather than assuming a preset establishes legal suitability.
Can visitors change their cookie preferences later?
Yes, visitors can reopen the CookieConsentHQ preference controls after making a choice. A website can call CCHQ.showPreferences() to display those controls again.
The ability to return to preferences matters because a previous decision may no longer reflect what the visitor wants. The ICO's guidance on managing consent discusses providing ways to withdraw consent with the same ease as giving it.
CookieConsentHQ records choices in its consent log, including the selected action, categories, region and banner configuration version. The record also includes a consent ID and UTC timestamp.
For a privacy request workflow, the website can retrieve the consent ID using CCHQ.getConsent().id and include it in a request form. The site owner can then look up the corresponding record by ID in the dashboard.
Can I change the banner text and language?
CookieConsentHQ ships banner text in seven languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese. Every text can be edited to describe your website's cookie use and the choices you present.
The category labels are functional, analytics and marketing. A clear explanation of the actual purposes behind these categories remains necessary when presenting them to visitors.
Editable text matters because sites use different combinations of cookies and trackers. A generic description may not explain a particular website's activities adequately.
Changes to the banner configuration are represented in logged choices through the saved banner configuration version. This helps associate a recorded decision with the relevant configuration.
You can inspect the site's detected cookies using the free checker for one page or the scheduled cookie scanner for broader coverage.
CookieConsentHQ provides the controls described here, but an appropriate banner also depends on its configuration and the website's behavior. This page reflects official guidance checked on October 20, 2026 and is not legal advice.