Hello Finsweet team,
I recently purchased your Consent Pro product to handle cookie consent on my website, and I’m currently configuring it. I have a question about a feature I’d like to implement—I’m not sure if it’s fully GDPR-compliant, but I’d love to know if it’s possible.
Basically, I have both a banner panel and a preferences panel. When someone visits the site, the banner pops up asking them to accept or reject cookies. They can also go directly to the preferences panel to customize their choices.
Now, what I want to do is have the checkboxes in the preferences panel pre-checked by default when someone clicks on preferences—so that all cookie types appear as already selected unless the user manually unchecks them. I tried using the “start checked” option on each checkbox, but it doesn’t seem to work as expected.
Did I miss something in the setup, or is this not supported? Essentially, I’d like to maximize the chances that users leave at least some cookies enabled by default, understanding that they can always uncheck them if they want.
Thanks a lot for your help!
Hey, @alexandreburgundcont!
It’s important to note that pre-checking consent boxes by default is generally not GDPR-compliant. Under GDPR, consent must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous. Pre-ticked boxes typically don’t constitute valid consent, as users should make an active choice rather than having to opt-out.
The most compliant approach is to have checkboxes unchecked by default, requiring users to actively consent to each category.
If you still need to implement pre-checked boxes (after legal approval), this would require a custom code solution. @Support-Luis or @Support-Pedro can help you implement this properly.
Instead of pre-checking boxes, we recommend:
- Optimizing your consent copy to make benefits clear
- Simplifying the process with clear language
- Using strategic banner design for better UX
Thank you for your response. I did suspect that it might not be fully GDPR-compliant, but I was hoping this option could be available in the Consent Pro interface in a straightforward way.
From my personal experience, I feel like no one particularly likes cookies. If someone goes straight to the preferences panel and sees all checkboxes empty, I find it hard to believe they would actively check the “Analytics” box—let alone the “Marketing” one. x)
That’s why I’m still curious about how to pre-check the boxes before the initial cookie decision is made. As I mentioned in my previous message: if the user hasn’t yet chosen “Allow” or “Deny” on the initial banner and instead heads straight to the preferences panel (say, just to disable marketing cookies), I’d like the checkboxes to appear pre-checked at that moment. This way, there’s at least a chance that some users will leave analytics enabled in certain scenarios.
I’m having a similar experience to this, the client would like the option to over ride this and have some of these pre-checked. @Support-Luis @Support-Pedro Please can you help with the custom code solution?
Hey @alexandreburgundcont @Scott_Humphrey!
If you are not looking for GDPR compliance, you can set the banner to opt-out.
This will have all categories active once the page loads, and there will be no script blocking for any category.