Cookie Categories
Managing cookie categories for GDPR compliance
Standard categories
Consentio uses four standard cookie categories as recommended by GDPR and ePrivacy:
Necessary
Cookies essential for basic website functionality. These cookies do not require user consent and cannot be rejected.
- Session cookies
- Authentication cookies
- Shopping basket cookies
- CSRF tokens
- Load balancing cookies
Analytics
Cookies for measuring traffic and analysing user behaviour. Consent is required.
- Google Analytics
- Matomo
- Hotjar
- Microsoft Clarity
Marketing
Cookies for advertising purposes, retargeting and ad personalisation. Consent is required.
- Google Ads
- Facebook Pixel
- LinkedIn Insight Tag
- Sklik
- Heureka
Functionality
Cookies for content personalisation and remembering settings. Consent is required.
- Language preferences
- Regional settings
- Display settings
- User preferences
Automatic categorisation
Consentio automatically categorises cookies when scanning your website. We use a database containing thousands of known cookies from services such as:
- Google (Analytics, Ads, Tag Manager)
- Facebook/Meta
- Microsoft (Bing, Clarity)
- Adobe
- And hundreds more
Manual category editing
You can change the category of each cookie in the dashboard:
- Go to the Cookies section of your website
- Find the cookie you want to edit
- Click on the category dropdown menu
- Select the correct category
- The change is saved automatically
Cookie descriptions
For transparency, you can add a description to each cookie:
- Name - Technical cookie name
- Description - Human-readable explanation of purpose
- Expiry - How long the cookie remains stored
- Provider - Who creates the cookie (first-party/third-party)
Consent Mode mapping
Categories are automatically mapped to Consent Mode:
| Consentio category | Consent Mode signals |
|---|---|
| Necessary | functionality_storage, security_storage |
| Analytics | analytics_storage |
| Marketing | ad_storage, ad_user_data, ad_personalization |
| Functionality | personalization_storage |
Custom categories
On the Pro plan, you can create custom cookie categories for specific purposes:
- In the dashboard, go to Settings → Categories
- Click Add category
- Enter the category name and description
- Set whether consent is required
- Assign cookies to the new category
Banner display
In the preference centre, users see an overview of categories:
- Category name
- Category description
- Number of cookies in the category
- Toggle to grant/revoke consent
- Option to expand details of individual cookies
Unknown cookies
If the scanner finds an unrecognised cookie:
- The cookie is marked as "Unknown"
- You will see a notification in the dashboard
- The cookie is temporarily placed in the Necessary category
- You should manually reassign it to the correct category
Best practices
- Minimise the number of cookies - only use those that are necessary
- Always assign cookies to the correct category
- Add clear cookie descriptions
- Regularly review and update the cookie list
- Run a new scan after adding a new service