Cookie Audit for Websites: Manually or with a Cookie Scanner

As a website owner, you are responsible for your users’ information that is collected and stored by cookies on your website. Any cookie active on your site can potentially cause privacy issues, especially if it is not used for its intended purpose or, more critically, if it is stored in your users’ browsers without their consent or knowledge. The risks range from heavy fines to a loss of trust among your users.

However, keeping track of all cookies and ensuring that your website complies with data protection requirements – especially those of the GDPR – can be a major challenge . Between technical details and legal requirements , many people quickly lose track .

A targeted cookie audit will provide clarity and help you ensure that your website remains compliant. In this article, we’ll show you how to audit your site manually or use a cookie scanner to make the process easier and more efficient.

Table of contents

1. What is a cookie audit?
2. Why you should conduct a cookie audit
3. Automating Cookie Audit: Tools and Methods
4. Cookie Scanner by consentmanager : Your all-in-one solution
5. The functions of the cookie scanner at a glance

What is a cookie audit?

A cookie audit is essentially an inventory of all the cookies active on your website. The goal is to identify each cookie, understand its purpose and ensure that it complies with applicable privacy regulations.

Why you should conduct a cookie audit

Reviewing, analyzing and, if necessary, managing cookies is not only important to be legally on the safe side. It also strengthens the relationship with your users and can significantly improve the efficiency of your website.

The benefits:

1. Legal certainty : Regular audits help you ensure that your website is legally compliant. New analysis tools or plugins that you use to improve your website could use cookies without you realizing it. An audit helps to identify these and manage them correctly.
2. Build trust: Transparency in data collection builds trust among your users. A cookie banner shows that you take data protection seriously and obtain user consent before data is collected.
3. Minimize risk: Checking your website for cookies can help you avoid potential violations and associated fines. This is more important than ever given the strict requirements of the GDPR and international regulations.
4. Performance optimization: Too many cookies can negatively impact your website’s performance and Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS). By removing unnecessary cookies, you improve your website’s performance and optimize the user experience.

How to perform a cookie audit manually

If you want to conduct the audit yourself, it is possible, but it requires time and diligence. Manually checking, analyzing and categorizing the cookies placed on your website and taking into account the applicable laws can be time-consuming, but it is necessary. After all, these small text files are stored in the browser, on mobile devices or via apps directly on your users’ devices and affect both privacy and the user experience.

Follow these steps to check your website for cookies:

Step 1: Identify the cookies on your website

You can use your browser’s developer tools to track all cookies your website sets. Here are instructions for the most common tools:

With Chrome

1. Open the website you want to analyze.
2. Open the Chrome Developer Tools by right-clicking the page and then clicking> Click Inspect.
3. Navigate to the Application tab and select Cookies under Storage.
4. Select your website domain to view all cookies set by this website.

With Firefox

1. Open the website you want to analyze.
2. Right-click the page and click Inspect.
3. Select the Storage tab and then select Cookies from the list of storage types in the left menu.
4. Select your website domain to view all stored cookies.

Step 2: Collect the data on each cookie

For each cookie, you should document the name, source (e.g. third-party provider or your own site), purpose, storage period and any data transfers.

Make note of important information such as:

1. Name of the cookie
2. Domain (origin of the cookie)
3. Path (scope)
4. Expiration date (validity period)
5. Purpose (e.g. analysis, advertising)

Step 3: Categorize your cookies

Classify cookies into meaningful categories to better understand their function and necessity. Commonly used cookie categories are:

1. Essential Cookies
   These cookies are necessary for the basic functionality of the website, such as navigation or accessing secure areas. Without them the website cannot function correctly.
2. Preference cookies
   These cookies allow the website to remember user preferences such as language or region and to tailor the user experience accordingly.
3. Statistics cookies
   These cookies collect information about how users interact with your website (e.g. pages visited, clicks). This data helps to optimize the website.
4. Marketing cookies
   These cookies are used to track visitors across different websites and, for example, to display relevant ads based on their interests.
5. Unknown cookies
   These cookies have not yet been assigned to a specific category and require further analysis.

Step 4: Check legal compliance

Make sure that all cookies on your website comply with the requirements of applicable legislation, such as the GDPR (EU General Data Protection Regulation), the nFADP (Swiss Data Protection Act), the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) or other relevant regulations.

Particularly important: For non-essential cookies , the user’s explicit consent must always be obtained. You can implement this effectively with a well-designed cookie banner.

Automating Cookie Audit: Tools and Methods

The advantages of an automated cookie scan are:

1. You save time: A cookie checker searches for and analyzes all cookies on your website for you.
2. Accuracy: An automated cookie checker also detects cookies that could be missed manually.
3. You receive regular updates: Online cookie checkers offer the possibility to regularly check your website for new cookies and update the report.

🍪 A cookie scanner like the one from consentmanager can make the whole process much easier for you.

Cookie Scanner by consentmanager : Your all-in-one solution

For consentmanager customers, the cookie crawler automatically starts a scan as soon as the CMP code has been integrated into your website. In addition to these automatic scans, you can also start manual scans at any time via the dashboard.

The dashboard gives you a clear overview of the results of your scans, including a risk assessment, an overview of the most important privacy issues, the different cookie types by category, and much more.

The functions of the cookie scanner at a glance

Scans to the highest privacy standards: The scanner automatically takes into account the country-specific privacy requirements set in your CMP. The analysed cookies are directly checked for compliance with the relevant regulations.

Identifies, analyzes and suggests steps to resolve potential issues: The scanner identifies data protection issues and provides clear recommendations on how to close potential gaps quickly and efficiently.

Efficiently manage your cookies: The scanner automatically categorizes your cookies and assigns them to the appropriate providers. To complete compliance, all you have to do is create a cookie banner and embed it on your website.

Save time identifying and solving problems

A particularly time-saving aspect is that the scanner works like a personal assistant that regularly looks over your shoulder, identifies privacy issues on your website and explains exactly how to solve them.

For example, let’s say a third-party cookie on your website transfers data to the US. Due to data protection laws there, this could violate the GDPR. The cookie scanner identifies the provider and suggests blocking it or stopping the data transfer.

Thanks to these automatic functions, you save a huge amount of time and avoid complex technical challenges.

Conclusion

With consentmanager ‘s free cookie scanner, the entire audit process is not only faster , but also less complicated . You no longer have to worry about whether your website is legally compliant – the scanner checks regularly, detects problems and helps you fix them quickly. This way, you stay on the safe side legally while saving time and effort.