Borlabs and Real Cookie Banner direct support deprecation notice

• We dropped direct support for the Borlabs Cookie and Real Cookie Banner CMPs in the Pixel Manager.
• This change will take effect with the release of version 1.41.1 of the Pixel Manager.
• What should you do? Read on to find out.

What is changing?

Starting with version 1.41.1 of the Pixel Manager, we will no longer officially provide direct support for Borlabs Cookie and Real Cookie Banner.

The current support has not been removed yet entirely. It has been scaled down to only support category based consent (statistics, marketing, preferences and necessary) and no longer supports the granular consent that these Consent Management Platforms (CMPs) provide (pixel based for each tracking pixel). This means that the Pixel Manager will enable or disable all pixels within a category based on the consent given by the user.

We will remove the remaining support for these CMPs on April 6, 2025.

What do we mean by "direct support"?

When we say "direct support", we mean that we will no longer provide specific integrations for these CMPs in the Pixel Manager. This means that you will no longer see these CMPs listed in the Pixel Manager's interface, and we will stop providing updates and fixes for these CMPs.

However, the Pixel Manager offers a Consent API that can be used by Borlabs Cookie and Real Cookie Banner to communicate with the Pixel Manager. This API will continue to be supported, and you can use it to integrate these CMPs (or any other unsupported CMP) with the Pixel Manager.

So, indirectly, you can still use Borlabs Cookie and Real Cookie Banner with the Pixel Manager, but you will need to handle the integration yourself, or ask the developers of these CMPs to do it for you.

Why is this happening?

Two main reasons:

• Pixel based consent instead of category based consent: Borlabs Cookie and Real Cookie Banner provide a lot of flexibility in terms of how you can manage your users' consent. They let visitors not only choose which categories of cookies they want to accept, but also which specific tracking pixels they want to allow. This level of granularity makes it technically challenging to integrate these CMPs with the Pixel Manager. Especially the maintenance of pixel based consent for each CMP is a challenge.

• Lack of standardization: Both Borlabs Cookie and Real Cookie Banner don't standardize the way they handle consent for each pixel. This makes it extremely difficult for us to provide a reliable integration that works for all users of those CMPs.

Is Borlabs Cookie's and Real Cookie Banner's approach, pixel based consent, wrong?

This is where probably even the best informed lawyers and privacy experts disagree (because they never agree). For us it is a matter of opinion, so don't take our word for it.

But we can tell you a few facts and let you guide your own decision:

• The GDPR does not require pixel based consent: The GDPR regulation requires that you inform your website visitors about the cookies you use. And it requires you to obtain their consent before you set any cookies (except for necessary cookies).

  However, the regulation does not specify that you need to obtain consent for each individual tracking pixel separately.

  So, category based consent should be enough to comply with the GDPR.

• Many certified (and very popular) CMPs use category based consent: Google and the IAB have developed a certification for GDPR compliant Consent Management Platforms (CMPs). Most CMPs use category based consent, and they are considered compliant with the GDPR.

  • List of Google certified CMPs: Source
  • List of IAB certified CMPs: Source

For example, Cookiebot and OneTrust are two of the most popular CMPs in the world. They both use category based consent, and they are certified by Google and the IAB, which means they are considered compliant with the GDPR.

To answer the question if pixel based consent is wrong: It is not wrong, but it is not necessary to comply with the GDPR.

What should you do?

If you are using Borlabs Cookie or Real Cookie Banner, you have a few options:

• Do nothing: If you are happy with the way your CMP is working, you can continue using it as is. Just be aware that we don't provide updates or fixes from now onward for these CMPs and will remove support on April 6, 2025 entirely. In the meantime the Pixel Manager will map the pixel based consent to the category based consent as good as possible.

• Switch to a different CMP: If you are looking for a new CMP, we recommend using a certified CMP like Cookiebot or OneTrust. These CMPs are certified by Google and the IAB, which means they are considered compliant with the GDPR. They use category based consent, which is much easier to integrate with the Pixel Manager.

• Use the Pixel Manager Consent API: If you want to continue using Borlabs Cookie or Real Cookie Banner, you can use our Consent API to integrate these CMPs with the Pixel Manager. This will require some development work, but it will allow you to continue using these CMPs with the Pixel Manager.

• Contact the developers of Borlabs Cookie and Real Cookie Banner: If you want to continue using these CMPs with the Pixel Manager, you can contact the developers of these CMPs and ask them to integrate with the Pixel Manager. They can use our Consent API to do this, and we are happy to help them with the integration.