Where are those Google Cookies from?

Privacy
1

Hello guys,

our judicial officer wants to know what those google cookies that are getting loaded after giving consent to tracking are about. Are those third party cookies from google that piwik pro is using?
An employee sent me a list with cookies but those aren’t shown on it.

I’ve linked google ads and google search engine with piwik pro and I’m using a conversion tag that is sending data to google ads. Maybe that’s why piwik is loading those.

The concern is two folded. Our judicial officer needs to know why and what those are to edit the declaration of data protection, while it also raised concerns if we are loading this stuff from google servers and our AW number is included in one of those cookies, google is getting alot of data which was the reason we wanted to use Piwik Pro instead of analytics.

Before and after

before-after
before-after1720×1806 318 KB

Thanks in advance :slight_smile:
Peter Dobrovka

2

Hi Peter,

Piwik PRO doesn’t use any Google cookies for any purpose. The integration with Google Ads and Google Search Console are done via API, where Piwik PRO is querying Google for advertising spend or search position but doesn’t give Google any information back.

The reason you see Google cookies is most probably because you set Google Ads Remarketing tag and possibly call other Google services.

If your legal team insists on not loading any Google cookies after consent then please be aware that you can manually load conversions to Google Ads (without them placing a 3rd party cookie) by following this guide: How can I export goal conversions from Piwik PRO to Google Ads? | Piwik PRO help center

Other ways you can debug your setup is to use the debug mode in Tag Manager and reviewing the list of tags that execute after the consent is provided. This way you’ll know when a cookie is created for a set of triggered tags. Make sure to test this in incognito/fresh browser to avoid listing cookies that were created by visiting other Google resources directly.

3

Thanks for the reply,

i have not any remarketing tags active. I only use conversion tracking and analytics as it is also shown in the automated consent form. The JS code is also only the piwik container.
The cookies from google are only getting loaded after I give consent at the piwik form.

The cookies are also not loaded from a beforehand visit on google. The website is only available inhouse as this is my private testing domain.

What could be other google services that I’m using via Piwik?
I used the conversion tracking tag where I had to paste my AW number ( conversion label ) from the campaign into Piwik Pro.

4

I think that you’ve answered yourself - if you’re executing Google Ads Conversion Tracking tag then you will place Google’s 3rd party cookie. You’ll find the description on how Google’s conversion tag works here: How Google Ads tracks website conversions - Google Ads Help

To avoid tracking Google Ads conversions using cookies, please follow this guide.

You can PM me your account address or website that you track and I’ll let you know if there’s any other tag that’s the culprit.

5

Thank you very much,

that’s what my initial question was about, I just wanted to know it for sure.
I don’t think there is any other culprit as im only having 2 tags yet in my testing domain.

I used the guide you have linked, i have implented it that way:
Option 1: Track your conversions with the updated Google Ads conversion tracking tag

Thank you very much and have a nice day :slight_smile:

6

Good morning,

I have one last question regarding this matter.
Which way does Piwik Pro implement the conversion tracking of google ads when I´m filling out conversion ID and Label in the Piwik Pro Dashboard?

For example at the website of Piwik Pro in the privacy policy you can find:

Third Party Tools: Hotjar, HubSpot, Google AdWords (Conversion Pixel)

But also without further information

Third parties involved: Facebook Ads, Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads

Thanks in advance

7

Hi! Since Piotr is out sick, I’ll try to help here.

The privacy policy on piwik.pro concerns mostly our corporate website and to some extent the product (product analytics purposes to improve user experience). In the product used by the end users we don’t run 3rd party tags by default, but just provide some templates which can be used by the users if they want to.

To review the exact code used by our built-in templates, you can use the Tag Manager debug mode. Just checked the Google Ads conversion pixel and the main part of the tag looks so:

gtag('event', 'conversion', {
            'send_to': 'AW-<Google Ads ID>/<Google Ads label>'
                    });

There’s also an optional conversion value field. Feel free to review the full tag using the debug mode.

8

Thank you very much,

I have just verfied via debug mode that it is indeed the conversion pixel that I’m using.

Have a great week :slight_smile:

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