Overview

• Getting started: the setup steps, with “1 of 3 steps done.”. A done step shows a Done pill, the others a plain Start button. The card goes away when every step is done, or when you click Hide these steps.
• The summary: “Nothing to fix among what Cookie Rocks can check.” or the number of points to fix, for example “2 points to fix”, with one sentence that says what this means.
• Your jurisdictions: one card per country or region your site addresses. See below.
• To fix: each point, with its label (Alert or To fix) and its button. Alerts come first. Only the first button of the list is a main button.
• Your setup: cards, each with a coloured pill and one sentence.
• News and alerts: the latest messages for your site.
• Good to know, when there is something to know: points that need no fix, such as a rule on the languages of the banner or a mention to add to your privacy policy. Each starts with a Good to know label. They come last, folded, with their number.

Getting started

The summary

• All clear: “Nothing to fix among what Cookie Rocks can check: your cookie banner, your cookies and your pages.”
• Points to fix: “Each point says what to check or to change, in your cookie banner or on your site.”
• A serious problem is open: “Your visitors’ choices are not handled as your jurisdictions require until this is fixed.”

Each point under To fix is something to check or to change. A point disappears once it is fixed and the page is reloaded, or after the next scan when the scan found it. Points that need no fix go under Good to know.

The number next to Cookie Rocks in the WordPress menu counts the points to fix only, as the screen does. Other points still to do on the Obligations screen count as one point of the list: “2 points of what the law asks of your site are still to do: the Obligations page lists them.”

Your current banner, checked

These points describe the banner of the cookie plugin you already use. They call it “your current cookie plugin”: only the Cookie banner card, under Your setup, gives its name. For many cookie plugins, Cookie Rocks reads their settings on your site. For the others, it relies on what is known of their free version: the point then says so, with the date it was checked and a Source link. See the cookie plugins that the Audit reads.

When a country you address asks for the banner in its language, Cookie Rocks also compares the languages of your current cookie plugin, read in its settings: “The banner of your current cookie plugin is not set up in French.” When its settings do not say its languages, the point asks you to check that its banner exists in that language. With the Cookie Rocks banner, a missing language comes with what to do: add a version of your site in that language (with a plugin such as Polylang or WPML), or untick these countries on the Obligations screen if you do not address their visitors.

With the Audit, this part has three cards.

This part shows the 4 latest messages, alerts first. Examples:

• a change of law in your countries, or a broken tool, from the legal watch of Cookie Rocks;
• news of Cookie Rocks.

Each message shows its date. An unread message has a New label before the date. A message that leads somewhere ends with a link. Remove a message with its cross: it does not come back. See all news opens the news page of cookierocks.com.

Cookie Rocks reads the legal watch once a day and keeps only what concerns your countries and your cookies. You can turn this off on the Obligations screen, under Law updates.

• The number on the Cookie Rocks menu counts the points to fix, and each screen of the submenu has its own count. Opening the Overview marks the messages as read.
• After the installation, the WordPress Dashboard and the Plugins page show “Cookie Rocks is installed.” with the steps that are left, a Start button and Hide these steps.
• A serious problem replaces that message with a red notice, “Cookie consent needs attention”, on the WordPress Dashboard and the Plugins page only. It has a See and fix button and a Remind me in 7 days link. The reminder is for you alone, and it hides both messages for 7 days. Cookie Rocks checks the problem again before showing the notice. With the Audit, the serious problems are a site without a cookie banner while some cookies need consent, an advertising identifier stored before consent, and the Global Privacy Control signal off in your cookie plugin while states of your visitors require it.
• Tools > Site Health has a Cookie Rocks test, with a Privacy badge. It reads “No cookie consent problem found”, or “Cookie consent needs attention” with the list of warnings and an Open Cookie Rocks link.

The Audit sends no email and no Slack message. Alerts appear in WordPress only.

• Getting started has four steps: Your site and your obligations, Cookies, Google (answer two questions, then save) and Appearance. Appearance is optional: it is not listed in the message on the WordPress Dashboard.
• Under the steps, a red card appears when no key is active (Enter a key or start the trial) or when the key has ended (Renew the key). When an update is ready, a card says “Version … is ready. Your settings are kept.” with an Update now button.
• One-click fixes: Keep choices for the right number of months, Honour the GPC signal, Record GPC refusals, Declare them (what your Tag Manager container loads), Show both buttons alike, Show the cookie button, Write the texts into the pages. A message confirms each fix, for example “Done. Visitors whose browser sends the Global Privacy Control signal keep marketing off.”
• Fixes that change another plugin ask you to confirm first: Turn off this Site Kit setting (Site Kit stays active), Deactivate your current cookie plugin, Replace it with the Cookie Rocks policy (the document of another cookie plugin in your cookie policy page), and Set its GDPR option to “Yes” (an Instagram or Facebook feed).
• Other buttons open a screen, where you act yourself: Turn it on (Consent screen), Classify the cookies and Classify them (the table of the Services screen, with the rows found only in the code unfolded), Open the Google settings, Change this setting (Google reCAPTCHA treated as necessary), Renew the key or Renew your key. Follow the law strictly (Consent screen) appears next to a point about payment scripts.
• Points of Cookie Rocks Pro: the banner turned off, the former name of the plugin still installed, Site Kit setting Google’s consent a second time, another consent plugin active, a cookie policy page that shows another plugin’s document, a choice kept longer or shorter than your countries ask, the Global Privacy Control signal off, “Accept all” highlighted where buttons of equal weight are required, tools of your Tag Manager container not declared, Google reCAPTCHA treated as necessary, unclassified cookies of your site, and a law changed in your countries after your key ended.
• The cards describe what the banner does: the banner itself, Google Consent Mode, WP Consent API, Site Kit, the languages of the banner, one card per tool found, the cookies of your site, your page cache, and your home page. See and adjust the banner opens the Appearance screen.
• The Home page card checks your home page each time you open the Overview, and once a day from the server. It reports a Google tag that loads before Cookie Rocks, another tool that also sets Google’s default consent, Google Fonts or Adobe Fonts loaded from their servers (“Your home page loads Google Fonts from Google’s servers, which sends visitors’ IP addresses to Google before any consent. Turn on “Serve Google Fonts from this site” on the Consent page.”), a missing link to your privacy or cookie policy, a missing “Manage cookies” link when the cookie button is hidden, or a banner texts file that does not load. Its problems join To fix. Check again runs the check once more. When you address California, the daily check also looks for a “Do Not Sell or Share” link.
• Email and Slack alerts can be turned on, on the Consent screen. Each serious problem is sent once when it appears, and again if it comes back after being fixed. Urgent alerts of the legal watch are sent the same way.