Require consent to track visitors stops Alia from storing personal details about a visitor until that visitor consents to tracking. It helps you meet privacy laws such as the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive, which generally require consent before a website stores analytics data. Your popups run as usual, and your reports still count views, signups, and sales.
The setting is off by default. Most stores collect consent with a cookie banner, and this setting tells Alia to act on the visitor's answer.
š”Note: Alia doesn't show a cookie banner. Collecting valid consent is your responsibility, so check your setup with your legal counsel.
Turn on Require consent to track visitors
In Alia:
Go to Settings ā Tracking.
Under Require consent for analytics, select Require consent to track visitors.
In the confirmation message, select Require consent.
In Who this applies to, choose which visitors need to consent.
In How consent is indicated, choose your consent tool.
If you chose Only these countries or Everywhere except these countries, select the countries.
Save your changes.
Choose who needs to consent
The Who this applies to options are:
Determined by Shopify: Alia uses Shopify's Customer Privacy API to require consent from the same visitors Shopify shows your cookie banner to. Choose this if you use Shopify's banner.
All visitors: Everyone needs to consent, wherever they are.
Only these countries: Visitors in the countries you select need to consent. The country list includes All EU countries.
Everywhere except these countries: Everyone needs to consent except visitors in the countries you select.
Alia works out a visitor's country from their IP address but doesn't store it. If Alia can't tell where a visitor is, it requires consent.
Choose how consent is indicated
The How consent is indicated options are:
Shopify's cookie banner: Alia follows the visitor's analytics choice in Shopify's banner. If they accept partway through a visit, Alia picks it up right away.
Custom code: Your own consent tool tells Alia when a visitor consents by calling
alia.push({ type: 'enableAnalyticsTracking' }).
Alia listens only to the option you choose. If you use your own consent tool, an old answer in Shopify's banner can't override it.
If your store isn't on Shopify, the Shopify options don't appear. Use Custom code with your own consent tool.
What counts as consent
Alia treats a visitor as consented when any of these happens:
They accept analytics in Shopify's cookie banner, if you chose Shopify's cookie banner.
Your consent tool calls
alia.push({ type: 'enableAnalyticsTracking' }), if you chose Custom code.They submit one of your popup forms. This counts with either option.
Alia saves the date and time each visitor consented, so you have a record of it.
š”Tip: Because submitting a form counts as consent, check that the consent wording on every popup form covers tracking.
What Alia holds back until a visitor consents
Until a visitor consents, Alia doesn't store:
Their IP address, or the country, region, and city from it.
Their browser, operating system, and time zone.
Their Shopify customer ID and number of orders.
Their Shopify country, market, and language.
The page they landed on and its UTM source, medium, and campaign.
The pages they view, on Alia's servers or on their device.
Alia keeps a random visitor ID and a few basic facts, so a visitor who hasn't consented can't be identified from what Alia holds. Their popup views, signups, and purchases are still counted, tagged as unconsented and carrying only their country and device type.
The setting controls what Alia stores, not whether the visitor's browser contacts Alia. A few minimal requests still reach Alia's servers, such as a check for whether the setting is on. They don't carry personal details.
What keeps working
Most of Alia runs in the visitor's browser, so day to day, little changes:
Popups look and behave the same.
Signups, poll answers, and other form answers are saved and sent to your email and SMS platforms as usual.
Views, signups, purchases, and A/B test results are still counted, so your headline numbers stay accurate.
Most targeting conditions work as before. The ones that don't are listed in the next section.
What's reduced before a visitor consents
Reporting detail
For visitors who haven't consented, you can break results down by country and device. You can't break them down by city, region, browser, operating system, landing page, UTM source, UTM medium, UTM campaign, or Shopify market and language. These visitors don't appear in those breakdowns.
Targeting conditions
While the setting is on, the targeting rule editor shows a warning on each condition that's affected.
These conditions don't match until the visitor consents:
Number of orders (Shopify)
Identified by Klaviyo cookie, In Klaviyo list, In Klaviyo segment, and their "not" versions
In Dotdigital list and Not in Dotdigital list
These conditions only check the page the visitor is on, because Alia can't record their page history:
Has visited page(s) and Has not visited page(s)
UTM source is, UTM medium is, and their "is not" versions
For Number of pages viewed and Number of sessions, the count is always 1 for these visitors.
After a visitor consents
From their next page view, Alia records the visitor as it would without the setting, and your targeting rules and reports have full detail for them. Pages they viewed before consenting aren't added afterward, so their history starts when they consented.
Turning the setting on stops collection from then on. It doesn't remove data Alia collected before you turned it on.
Require consent to track visitors FAQ
I want my popup to wait until visitors answer the cookie banner. Does this setting do that?
No. This setting controls what Alia stores, not when popups show. To show a popup only after a visitor answers Shopify's cookie banner, add the Cookie consent allowed targeting condition to your campaign. See How to set up GDPR compliance with Alia.
Does this setting control what Alia sends to Meta and other ad platforms?
No. That's a separate setting, Require consent for marketing, also in Settings ā Tracking. Submitting a popup form counts as consent for analytics, but not as marketing consent for ad platforms.
My store isn't on Shopify. Which options should I use?
Choose who needs to consent with All visitors, Only these countries, or Everywhere except these countries. For How consent is indicated, use Custom code and have your consent tool call alia.push({ type: 'enableAnalyticsTracking' }).
Will requiring consent lower my popup results?
No. Popups show and behave the same, and signups and sales are still counted. You'll see less detail in some report breakdowns, and a few targeting conditions have less to work with for visitors who haven't consented.
Still have questions?
Start a chat from inside the Alia app, or use the chat in our Help Center. Fully Managed customers can also ask their Customer Success Manager.