usatoday.com: 1 finding in cookie consent.

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usatoday.com

108.0s 7 Nov 2026
Verdict

1 finding · 4 warnings · 4 checks passed

Advertising assessment: Non-Compliant Grade C
75% Technical score

Tools

9
Adobe Experience Platform Analytics
Compliant
Amazon Ads Advertising
Compliant
Criteo Advertising
Compliant
Gannett Digital Media Network · Gannett Media Marketing Sends requests before consent or after it was declined
Non-Compliant
Google Ads Advertising
994302621
Compliant
Google Analytics 4 Analytics Tracks visitors without consent (cookie or visitor ID)
G-QQ6YP2J211
Non-Compliant
Google Publisher Ads Advertising
7103
Compliant
Parse.ly Analytics
usatoday.com
Compliant
Taboola Advertising
Compliant

Violations

5
Critical
Tracking cookies were set before the consent decision GCM_002

Cookies: _ga

Do not write analytics or advertising cookies until the visitor has made a consent choice. Load GTM/GA4 tags behind a denied consent default and let the CMP's update unblock them.

Critical
Non-compliant tracking after consent was rejected GCM_010

Affected: Google Analytics 4, Gannett Digital Media Network

After a rejection the listed tools must stop storing visitor IDs and sending measurement, or run only in a verified cookie-less mode.

Warning
Consent Mode default is missing GCM_001

Call gtag('consent', 'default') with denied values before GTM or GA4 loads, so the initial consent state is explicit.

Warning
Consent state was not updated after the banner choice GCM_003

Make both the accept and the reject button update the consent state through the GTM Consent API or gtag('consent', 'update').

Warning
Non-compliant tracking before consent GCM_009

Affected: Google Analytics 4, Gannett Digital Media Network

The listed tools stored a visitor ID or sent measurement before the visitor chose, without a verified cookie-less mode. Load them only after consent, or configure a documented cookie-less mode that sends no IDs.

Overview

A consent banner is shown 15/15
The consent banner works 10/10
Consent can be rejected 10/10
No tracking before consent 15.56/20
Google Consent Mode is implemented 7.5/15
Google Consent Mode sends the correct states 8/10
No tracking cookies before consent 0/10
The consent choice persists 5/5
No tracking after rejection 3.89/5

Consent Mode

Consent Mode Implemented
Has Default Values
Updates on Accept
Google not loaded after reject
Persists Across Pages
GCS Configuration Valid
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Measured on 7 Nov 2026 · a new scan will be available on 5 Dec 2026