When you will need a consent banner on your site (and which one)

Consent banners are required in 60+ countries of the world. However, you may need to use one, even if your country doesn’t require it!

And, if that wasn’t confusing enough, there are 3 types of consent banners.

So which ones should you use? And when?

Generally, we can divide consent banners into 3 types:

  1. Opt-in banners – these banners will not let you track your visitors before they agree to tracking
  2. Opt-out banners – these banners will let you track your visitors from the moment they come to the website, however if they decline tracking, you will no longer be able to track them.
  3. Information banners – These banners simply inform people that they are tracked.

All these three types, can be set up with WP Full Picture. But when should you use them?

You will need a consent banner on your website when BOTH of these are true:

  1. There is a tracking tool on your site that collects information that can be used to identify your visitors. This can be an IP address, email or any other piece of information that can identify them. If you are not sure, then it is better to assume, that your tools collect such information.
  2. One or more of your visitors comes from a country which requires a consent banner

The second point requires extra explanation.

It is often believed, that consent banners need to be used only in countries where they are required. However, this is incorrect.

In reality, a visitor should see a consent banner on every website he/she visits, if they are required in the country they come from.

Example

Visitor 1Visitor 2Visitor 3
Visitor’s location*Country which requires consent banners in opt-in modeCountry which requires consent banners in opt-out modeCountry which doesn’t require consent banners
What consent banner should they see?Consent banner in opt-in mode.Consent banner in opt-out mode.No consent banner or only info popup

Sections below contain lists of countries that require consent banners. These lists are divided into 2 sections because some countries may require a different type of banner, depending on how you use visitors’ data.

You must ask your visitors for permission to track them in these countries (opt-in)

All EU countries:

  • Austria,
  • Belgium,
  • Bulgaria,
  • Croatia,
  • Cyprus (Republic of),
  • Czech Republic,
  • Denmark,
  • Estonia,
  • Finland,
  • France,
  • Germany,
  • Greece,
  • Hungary,
  • Ireland,
  • Italy,
  • Latvia,
  • Lithuania,
  • Luxembourg,
  • Malta,
  • Netherlands,
  • Poland,
  • Portugal,
  • Romania,
  • Slovakia,
  • Slovenia,
  • Spain
  • Sweden.

Other countries:

  • Argentina,
  • Australia,
  • Brazil,
  • Canada,
  • Canary Islands,
  • China,
  • Colombia,
  • French Guiana,
  • Guadeloupe,
  • Hong Kong,
  • Iceland,
  • India,
  • Japan,
  • Liechtenstein,
  • Norway,
  • Martinique,
  • Mayotte,
  • Mexico,
  • Morocco,
  • Nigeria,
  • Réunion,
  • Russia,
  • Saint Martin (French part)
  • Singapore,
  • South Africa,
  • South Korea,
  • Switzerland,
  • Taiwan,
  • Turkey,
  • UK.

In these countries you can track your visitors from the moment they enter the site, but they need to have an option to decline tracking (opt-out)

  • Kazakhstan
  • USA (California),

Visitors from other countries need to be notified about tracking

You must ask your visitors for permission to track them in these countries (opt-in)

All EU countries:

  • Austria,
  • Belgium,
  • Bulgaria,
  • Croatia,
  • Cyprus (Republic of),
  • Czech Republic,
  • Denmark,
  • Estonia,
  • Finland,
  • France,
  • Germany,
  • Greece,
  • Hungary,
  • Ireland,
  • Italy,
  • Latvia,
  • Lithuania,
  • Luxembourg,
  • Malta,
  • Netherlands,
  • Poland,
  • Portugal,
  • Romania,
  • Slovakia,
  • Slovenia,
  • Spain
  • Sweden.

Other countries:

  • Argentina,
  • Australia,
  • Brazil,
  • Canary Islands,
  • China, Colombia,
  • Cyprus,
  • French Guiana,
  • Guadeloupe,
  • Iceland,
  • Liechtenstein,
  • Martinique,
  • Mayotte,
  • Morocco,
  • Nigeria,
  • Norway,
  • Réunion,
  • Saint Martin (French part),
  • South Korea,
  • Taiwan,
  • Turkey,
  • the UK,
  • Russia

In these countries you can track your visitors from the moment they enter the site, but they need to have an option to decline tracking (opt-out)

  • Canada,
  • Hong Kong,
  • India,
  • Japan,
  • Kazakhstan,
  • Mexico,
  • Philippines,
  • Singapore,
  • Switzerland

Visitors from other countries need to be notified about tracking

By the way. Since there are 195 countries in the world, the list may not be complete! If you see that there is an error, please let me know.

If you are a user of WP Full Picture Pro, then we definitely recommend using one of the automatic modes. This way, visitors from different countries will see banners required in their own countries.

If you use WP Full Picture Free, then:

  1. If your visitors are from different countries and consent banner is required in at least one of them, you should choose the opt-in consent banner as your safest option.
  2. If your visitors are from different countries but consent banners are not required in any of them, you should choose to use a consent banner in “Info” mode. This way you will at least inform accidental visitors from other countries about tracking.
  3. If your visitors comes from 1 country, you should see in the accordion sections above, if the consent banner is required in it and which one.

Sources and explanations

The information below is based on the data from:

Information provided in some of the sources I used were contradictory. I have listed below the most important and serious contradictions.

  • New Zealand – according to this article cookie notice is not required in New Zealand. However, it was mentioned as the country with the most strict laws (“opt-in required”) in the document by Securiti (link above). After further research, I decided that the information provided in the first source was accurate.
  • the Philippines – according to this article, it is sufficient to notify visitors from the Philippines about the use of cookies. However, in the document by Securiti (link above) it was marked as “Opt-in required”. After some research, I found information provided in the first source as accurate.