How Tailor honors visitor cookie consent
Your experiments and fully ramped pages run for every visitor immediately. When a consent provider is configured, consent controls whether Tailor identifies the visitor and tracks engagement for analytics.
Last updated: August 2026
Summary
- Once consent is configured in Tailor, it's safe to load the Tailor script before consent is collected. Your pages run right away; Tailor waits for consent before storing cookies, sending tracking events, or identifying the visitor.
- Your experiments and fully ramped pages run for every visitor immediately, no matter their consent.
- What a visitor sees depends on how each page is set up: a fully ramped page shows to every visitor, while an experiment shows its variant to a share of visitors.
- Consent controls three things: the cookie that keeps a visitor on the same variant across visits, engagement tracking for analytics, and (if enabled) identification of the visitor's company and role. Tailor evaluates consent only when a consent provider is configured for the domain (Settings › Privacy & Data › Cookie Compliance).
What consent controls
Your experiments and fully ramped pages are never gated by consent. They run for every visitor immediately, whether or not they have responded to your consent banner. Consent does not change what a visitor sees.
When a consent provider is configured, consent controls three things:
- Cookie. Whether Tailor stores a random ID in a cookie so we can keep the visitor pinned to the same variant across visits. This avoids the experience changing every time they come back.
- Analytics events. Whether Tailor tracks visitor engagement. These events are what make the visit count toward experiment results.
- Identification, optional. If visitor identification is enabled, whether Tailor identifies the visitor's company and role using their IP address. Without consent, the visitor is not identified.
Runs for every visitor, never consent-gated
- Loading the Tailor script
- Rendering your experiments and variants
- Rendering fully ramped pages
- Assigning a variant for the current page view
Requires consent
- Storing a cookie to keep the same variant across visits
- Sending engagement events that count toward results
- Identifying the visitor's company and role
Loading the Tailor script before consent
You can load the Tailor script before consent is collected, and you do not need to block or consent-gate the Tailor tag. The script loads and your pages run right away, but Tailor does not identify the visitor or track their engagement until that visitor grants consent through your consent provider. Consent is evaluated only when a consent provider (your consent management platform, or CMP) is configured for the domain in Tailor's settings.
Installing directly vs. through a tag manager
Tailor is normally installed as a script tag in your site's page head. It can also be deployed through a tag manager such as Google Tag Manager, and that choice changes how consent affects your pages.
When Tailor loads through a tag manager, your consent platform sees the tag manager, not Tailor. Say the container is mapped to a non-essential purpose such as Advertising. A visitor opted out of that purpose blocks the container, and every tag inside it is blocked too. Tailor never loads, so your experiments and fully ramped pages do not render for that visitor at all. This is the usual explanation when Tailor stops working in regions that opt visitors out by default.
Installing the Tailor script directly gives you the behavior described on this page. The script loads and your pages render for every visitor. Tailor holds back the cookie, the engagement analytics, and identification until consent allows them. The decision happens inside Tailor, per visitor, rather than by blocking the whole script.
We recommend a direct install on any site where page rendering should not depend on a non-essential purpose. If you keep Tailor in a tag manager, map that container to an essential or strictly necessary purpose so it is not blocked. Tailor still applies consent to tracking, as described below.
Configure your consent provider
Configure each domain's consent provider in the dashboard:
Settings › Privacy & Data › Cookie ComplianceFor each domain, select the consent management platform it uses. Tailor reads consent from the following platforms:
What Tailor reads from OneTrust
- Signal read
window.OnetrustActiveGroupsThe list of consent groups the visitor has accepted.- What counts as consent
- The C0002 (Performance) or C0004 (Targeting) group.
What Tailor reads from Cookiebot
- Signal read
window.Cookiebot.consentThe consent state Cookiebot keeps on the page.- What counts as consent
- The statistics or marketing category.
What Tailor reads from Usercentrics
- Signal read
getConsentDetails()The consent details from the Usercentrics CMP controller.- What counts as consent
- The marketing category, once it is fully accepted.
What Tailor reads from CookieScript
- Signal read
window.CookieScriptThe categories in CookieScript's current state.- What counts as consent
- The performance or targeting category.
- Note
- If CookieScript reports that the visitor is outside the regions it covers, Tailor treats consent as not required.
What Tailor reads from CookieYes
- Signal read
window.getCkyConsent()The categories the visitor has accepted.- What counts as consent
- The analytics, performance, or advertisement category.
What Tailor reads from HubSpot
- Signal read
window._hspThe consent state HubSpot stores in the browser.- What counts as consent
- The analytics or advertisement category.
What Tailor reads from Transcend
- Signal read
window.airgap.getConsent()The purposes map returned by airgap.js.- What counts as consent
- The Analytics or Advertising purpose.
- Note
- Tailor accepts a value of true. It also accepts Auto, which is Transcend's default opt in for regions that do not require an explicit choice.
No additional tags or snippets are required. If a domain has no consent provider configured, Tailor does not evaluate consent on that domain, and identification and analytics follow the browser's standard cookie behavior. If your consent provider is not listed, contact us; we can add support for additional providers quickly on request.
How Tailor classifies consent
Tailor reads the consent categories recorded by your provider and treats consent to either analytics / performance cookies or marketing / advertising / targeting cookies as consent to identify the visitor and track their engagement. Each platform labels these categories differently, so Tailor maps each one to these two groups.
Consent granted: Tailor identifies the visitor and tracks their engagement, and the visit counts toward your experiment results.
Consent declined, not yet given, or unreadable: Tailor does not identify the visitor or track engagement, and the visit does not count. The visitor still sees your experiments and fully ramped pages.
When consent is unknown
When a consent provider is configured and the consent state is absent or cannot be determined, Tailor does not identify the visitor or track engagement. Your experiments and fully ramped pages still run in every case. This applies when:
- The consent provider has not finished loading. Tailor waits until the consent state is available.
- The visitor has not yet responded to the consent banner. Tailor waits until consent is recorded.
- The consent state cannot be read or returns an error.
- A consent provider is configured for the domain, but its banner does not load. Tailor flags the condition for our team.
Region and country-specific behavior
Whether consent is required can differ by region. Your experiments and fully ramped pages run for every visitor regardless of region. What changes is whether Tailor identifies the visitor and tracks engagement. When your provider indicates consent is not required for a visitor, Tailor identifies the visitor and tracks engagement; when consent is required, Tailor waits for the visitor's decision before doing either.
To apply different behavior in different countries, configure it in your consent provider, which is the source Tailor reads. For custom configuration options, contact us to discuss your requirements.
Responding to consent changes during a session
Tailor re-evaluates consent if it changes during a session. If a visitor grants consent after initially declining or ignoring the banner, Tailor begins identifying the visitor and tracking engagement from that point. If a visitor withdraws consent, Tailor stops. The change applies during the same session, without a page reload.
Registering Tailor in your consent platform
Tailor applies consent itself, so your consent platform does not need to block anything for Tailor to behave correctly. Mapping Tailor as a vendor or data flow is still worth doing. It keeps what Tailor does disclosed and visible to your privacy team. Tailor's traffic falls into three surfaces, and they are best mapped separately:
The Tailor script. Loads from Tailor's domain on every page view. It sets no cookie and sends no personal data at load, and it is what renders your pages. Map it to an essential, strictly necessary, or functional purpose so that blocking a non-essential purpose does not stop your pages from rendering.
Engagement events. Sent to Tailor's API only when consent allows. Map to your analytics or performance purpose.
Visitor identification, if you have it enabled. Looks up the visitor's company and role from their IP address, only when consent allows. Map to your advertising or targeting purpose, and to sale or sharing if your platform models that separately.
The exact hostnames for each surface depend on your account. Your install snippet shows the script host, and we can provide the full list for your vendor registry on request.
Effect on your reporting
- Every visitor sees your experiments and fully ramped pages, regardless of consent.
- Visits from consenting visitors are identified, tracked, and counted in your results.
- Visits from visitors who decline, have not responded, or whose consent cannot be read are not tracked, so they do not appear in your results.
Configuration and support
To request support for a consent provider that is not listed, discuss custom configuration, or confirm your setup, contact support [at] tailorhq [dot] ai.