01 · The basics
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your device the first time you visit. The next time you come back, the site reads it to remember things you've done — staying logged in, your language preference, what you put in a shopping cart — or to measure how the site is used.
Similar technologies — local storage, session storage, pixels, tags — work in different ways but raise the same kind of questions about consent. Throughout this page, we use the word "cookies" to cover all of them.
Not every cookie needs your permission. Cookies that are strictly necessary for a site to work — keeping you logged in, remembering items in a cart — can be set without asking. Everything else, when it could profile you or send data to a third party, generally needs your explicit, freely-given consent.
02 · Categories
The four kinds of cookies you'll meet.
Most consent banners — including the WABBE one — group cookies into four families. The first is allowed by default. The other three only run if you say yes.
Strictly necessary
Make the site work. Authentication, security, load balancing, remembering items in a cart. Without these the site breaks — so they don't ask permission.
Analytics
Count visits, measure which pages work, spot errors. Useful for the site owner. Identifying you personally isn't the goal, but in most European jurisdictions an opt-in is still required.
Marketing
Show you ads, retarget you on other sites, measure ad performance. Often set by third parties (Google, Meta, LinkedIn). Always opt-in.
Profiling
Build a longer-term picture of who you are and what you like, to personalise content or offers. The most sensitive category — always opt-in, always granular.
03 · Example inventory
What a typical cookie list looks like.
The table below is illustrative — a representative example of what most sites set today. The live, exact list for the site you visited is shown directly inside its consent banner under "Cookie details" or equivalent.
04 · In your browser
Manage cookies directly on your device.
The consent banner is the right tool to refine choices for a specific website. But every browser also lets you see, block or delete cookies globally — across all sites.
05 · Your rights
What the law generally guarantees you.
Across the major privacy frameworks — European and beyond — anyone whose personal data is processed typically has the kinds of rights listed below. The exact names, scope and procedures depend on the law of your country; for specifics, consult the applicable regulation or the data controller of the site you visited.
06 · Coverage
Privacy frameworks the consent layer is designed to adapt to.
The consent layer's defaults and disclosures are designed to adapt across the most common privacy frameworks. Coverage is being expanded over time and reviewed against current guidance.
07 · Roles
Who is responsible for what.
Cookie consent involves more than one party. The roles below are common across most privacy frameworks — the exact names may vary, but the responsibilities are similar.
The owner of the website you're visiting. Decides which cookies to set, why, and for how long. Bears the primary legal responsibility for any personal data collected through their domain — including the choice of any third-party service that touches that data.
A service that operates on the controller's instructions. A consent management platform, for example, runs the banner and records user choices on behalf of the controller — under a written agreement that limits what the processor can do with the data.
Other services the processor relies on (hosting, email, monitoring). Each one extends the chain of trust. A serious controller checks who their processor's sub-processors are and how they are bound.
Embedding external scripts — analytics, social embeds, chat widgets, fonts, video players, ad pixels — before the user has given consent is one of the most common compliance failures. Every embed creates its own data-handling relationship and should be inventoried, assessed and explicitly accepted by the data controller before going live.
08 · Get in touch
Questions, complaints, requests.
For anything about this page or the WABBE consent layer itself, write to us. For questions about the specific cookies a website sets, contact the owner of that website — they are the controller.