Making CookieYes block Squarespace Analytics before consent

Site URL: https://www.transitionzero.org/

Hi all, 

I've been struggling to set up website tracking, cookies and analytics in a way that is GDPR compliant and meets our organisation's marketing needs. 

Our website: https://www.transitionzero.org/

The Squarespace cookie banner isn't GDPR compliant, so I installed CookieYes. This seems to do a good job mostly but I've realised it does not block Sqaurepace Analytics before users give consent! CookieYes is only blocking third party cookies before consent. And because SS analytics is built into the website and not a code injection, I can't change the order to make CookieYes fire first, like I did with other scripts... 

First question: Is there a way to make CookieYes manage consent for Squaurespace analytics cookies? 

I know you can use the Squarespace cookie banner to only use analytics once users consent. But this isn't enough. Not only does it not allow them to manage their preferences, it doesn't block third-party cookies either. 
But if the third-party cookie consent solutions only do third-party cookies and don't touch the SS analytics cookies, then what are you supposed to do to cover everything?! 😞 

I suppose another option is to disable Squarespace Analytics entirely. I do have another analytics which doesn't use cookies, Plausible Analytics (would recommend, it's great) so I could just disable SS analytics and rely purely on that. But I would much rather keep SS analytics as a backup, and to see historical data all the way back to our website launch, long before we had Plausible. 

Second question: What happens if you completely disable SS analytics? Do you keep the historical data up to that point? Do your forms stay working correctly? I'm a bit nervous to try it!

PS. I really hope Squarespace up their game on privacy and GDPR compliance because this is a massive headache and a big downside to an otherwise great platform. 

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi, just following up as I spoke to someone on the Squarespace Customer Care live chat. 

They said they could not help me with the CookieYes integration. 

And they said that if you disable Squarespace Analytics, your historical data should not be affected. So I am going to disable SS Analytics. 
I realised that if I was able to get it to play nice with CookieYes, there would still be no point having it really as the data would be inaccurate given it would no longer count people who didn't give consent. 

My new best solution is to use Plausible Analytics for full accurate cookie-free analytics tracking, and cookie consent (via CookieYes) for any/all other marketing cookies.

Note this only works for us as we have quite a simple website with just info and lead forms. (Plausible is simple and doesn't have eCommerce tracking).
This would not work for a website that has a store... So I would still love to know the solution for future reference! 

Really hope the Squarespace GDPR functionality improves... 

Just wanted to say thanks for posting this @TeganTallullah, I've been looking at exactly the same thing with CookieYes and Squarespace analytics!

I was planning to switch off SS analytics like you. I might use Google Analytics though, rather than Plausible, for ecommerce tracking.

I'm definitively uncomfortable creating client sites on Squarespace as long as this GDPR problem exists...

On 8/5/2022 at 11:24 AM, TeganTallullah said:

Hi, just following up as I spoke to someone on the Squarespace Customer Care live chat. 

They said they could not help me with the CookieYes integration. 

And they said that if you disable Squarespace Analytics, your historical data should not be affected. So I am going to disable SS Analytics. 
I realised that if I was able to get it to play nice with CookieYes, there would still be no point having it really as the data would be inaccurate given it would no longer count people who didn't give consent. 

My new best solution is to use Plausible Analytics for full accurate cookie-free analytics tracking, and cookie consent (via CookieYes) for any/all other marketing cookies.

Note this only works for us as we have quite a simple website with just info and lead forms. (Plausible is simple and doesn't have eCommerce tracking).
This would not work for a website that has a store... So I would still love to know the solution for future reference! 

Really hope the Squarespace GDPR functionality improves... 

Hopping in this conversation, bummed to see that SqSp still hasn't supplied a native cookie management system / preferences page. I just signed up for Enzuzo since Termly's cookie mgmt system has been acting very broken lately; and similar to Termly, Enzuzo has Terms & Cond and Privacy Policy tools. But I'm having a rough start with Enzuzo too. Why are none of these tools simple? Has anyone found one that offers the above features and just works simply?

On 4/14/2023 at 1:01 AM, lightbulbmoments said:

Has anyone found one that offers the above features and just works simply?

Personally, I recommend CookieScript as it is not just easy to configure, it is easy for site visitors to use too.

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