Privacy Policy

Last updated: February 17, 2026

About This Demo Site

This is a learning and demonstration project for Google Tag Manager. No real user data is collected or stored. This privacy policy exists to help you understand how privacy and consent work in the context of web analytics and tracking.

Understanding Web Tracking & Privacy

When you visit most websites, they use tracking technologies (cookies, pixels, tags) to collect information about how you interact with the site. This data helps website owners understand user behavior and improve their sites.

However, privacy regulations like GDPR (Europe) and CCPA (California) require websites to get user consent before setting certain types of tracking cookies.

What is Google Consent Mode?

Google Consent Mode v2 is a framework that allows Google tags (like Google Analytics, Google Ads) to adjust their behavior based on user consent choices.

Key concepts:

  • Default Denied: Tags start in a "denied" state where they don't set cookies or collect personal data until the user gives consent.
  • Consent Types: Different types of consent (analytics, advertising, functionality, personalization) can be granted separately.
  • Cookieless Pings: Even without consent, Google can receive anonymous aggregated data for basic measurement (no cookies, no personal data).
  • Consent Signals: Your consent choices are signaled to Google's servers so they know how to handle your data.

How We'll Implement Consent Mode

When we add GTM to this site, we'll implement Consent Mode properly:

  1. Set Default State: Before GTM loads, we'll set all consent types to "denied" by default.
  2. Show Consent Banner: Display a banner asking users to accept or customize their cookie preferences.
  3. Update Consent: When users make a choice, we'll update the consent state and GTM will adjust tag behavior accordingly.
  4. Store Preferences: Save the user's choice in localStorage so they don't see the banner on every page load.
  5. Respect Choices: Ensure all tags honor the consent settings.

Consent Mode Implementation Code

Here's a preview of what the Consent Mode implementation looks like (we'll build this in consent.js): 

// Set default consent state (denied) before GTM loads
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}

gtag('consent', 'default', {
  'ad_storage': 'denied',
  'ad_user_data': 'denied',
  'ad_personalization': 'denied',
  'analytics_storage': 'denied',
  'functionality_storage': 'denied',
  'personalization_storage': 'denied',
  'security_storage': 'granted', // Usually always granted
  'wait_for_update': 500 // Wait 500ms for user choice
});

// When user accepts, update consent
gtag('consent', 'update', {
  'ad_storage': 'granted',
  'analytics_storage': 'granted'
  // ... etc
});

Best Practices for Privacy-Compliant Tracking

  • Always implement consent BEFORE loading tracking tags
  • Use "default denied" approach - better to ask permission than forgiveness
  • Never send PII (personally identifiable information) to analytics
  • Provide clear, honest information about what you track and why
  • Give users an easy way to change their consent preferences
  • Respect "Do Not Track" signals when possible
  • Keep only the data you actually need
  • Use Google's Consent Mode to ensure compliance across Google products

Data We Will NOT Collect

This is a demo site, so we won't collect real data, but it's important to know what you should NOT track in production:

  • Email addresses
  • Names
  • Phone numbers
  • Physical addresses
  • Social security numbers or government IDs
  • Financial information
  • Health information
  • Any other PII without explicit consent and proper security
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