Consent from the chatbox: engage your visitors, even if they refuse cookies

An increasing number of Internet users systematically refuse cookies when they arrive on a site, even if those cookies can be useful, like iAdvize's. This article explains how to continue to engage all your visitors, even when they refuse to accept cookies when arriving on your site. To learn more about the legal framework and the iAdvize cookie, the article iAdvize and cookies summarizes this topic.

1. Principle

Usually, as explained in this article, the data collected by the iAdvize cookie allows it to work in two ways:

  • by targeting visitors according to the criteria of your engagement strategy
  • by tracking the data of the conversation held with iAdvize

When a visitor refuses the deposit of cookies on a site, the solution you can implement works as follows:

  • by targeting visitors according to simple criteria that do not require cookies such as the current page address, the type of device (mobile or desktop), the browser language, the time and day of the visit, etc. 
  • by offering them to accept the use of the cookie from the chatbox, so that iAdvize can follow the conversation before they engage in it. 

Since visitors have refused cookies when they arrive on your site, targeting cannot take into account:

  • the number of pages viewed
  • the time spent on the site
  • the previous page
  • the time elapsed since the last visit
  • the visits
  • referencing
  • the probability of intelligent targeting functions
  • scoring rules
  • and these visitors cannot be taken into account in the calculation of increment tests.

On the other hand, you can engage 100% of your site's visitors with iAdvize, without ever tracking them on your site for that.

2. Technical implementation

Step 1: add the "explicit cookies consent” mode in the iAdvize tag

To benefit from the explicit cookie consent :

1.1. The implementation of the iAdvize tag must be reviewed on your website, in order to add an additional parameter useExplicitCookiesConsent with the value true.

The implementation below replaces the code you were currently using on your pages.

NB: The implementation is evolving, but the iAdvize code that will be loaded and its performance remain unchanged.

This implementation does not automatically deposit cookies on your site anymore, so you must now add this tag on all your pages, without worrying about the visitor's consent. This code must therefore be executed as soon as a new visitor arrives on the site.

The cookie consent code is available in your iAdvize administration.

You will need to log in to iAdvize:

Once connected:

  • click on your "Profile" button at the top right, then click the links "Projects" and "insert this script"
  • only managers and administrators have access to the iAdvize administration

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On this page, you can set the Explicit Cookie consent and access the code.

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Available parameters:

Parameter
Type
Description
Default value
sid
(required)
Integer
Your project / website ID
-
lang
(optional)
String
Language of the livechat used for the display of chat elements in a given language.
Browser language
useExplicitCookiesConsent
(optional)
Boolean
If true, this tag will no longer automatically set a cookie on the visitor’s browsers by default. The cookie  vuid  is only implemented after the visitor has provided his explicit content when accepting the GDPR consent at the beginning of a conversation. 
false

 

1.2. Activating consent is highly recommended within the iAdvize administration.

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Thus, if a visitor refuses cookies from your site, he will still have access to information related to the cookies installed by iAdvize that are essential to start a conversation.

Step 2: manage the visitor consent in the cookie banner

For this step we have 2 solutions that can be more or less integrated with your Consent Management Platform (CMP). We do recommend to get in touch with your iAdvize contact to choose the most suitable solution for your brand and CMP.

 

Solution 1

Standalone mode: implement the Explicit Cookie consent script (and nothing more).

This mode is the easiest to deploy but has several limitations,  please be aware of the 3 limitations listed below before implementing it.

You will only need to implement the principal script detailed above to make the Explicit Cookie consent work.

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Also, as it is a legal obligation you will need to implement on your website an access for your visitors to change or remove their consent:

<script>
    function removeIAdvizeCookiesConsent() {
        window.iAdvizeInterface = window.iAdvizeInterface || [];
        window.iAdvizeInterface.push(function(iAdvize) {
            iAdvize.set('visitor:cookiesConsent', false);
        });
        // Replace this feedback alert with your own UX
        alert('iAdvize cookies consent has been removed');
    }
</script>

<a href="#" onclick="removeIAdvizeCookiesConsent()">Remove iAdvize cookies consent</a>

As this mode is standalone this access to change or remove the cookie consent cannot only redirect your visitors to your CMP.

Here are the 3 main limitations of this cookie consent mode:

This mode is standalone, which means that it does not share the consent status with your consent management platform (CMP) 

Here is the list of the engagement rules that will no longer be triggered for all your visitors (whether or not they accept cookies from your website): number of pages viewed, time spent on the site, previous page, time elapsed since the last visit, # of visits, referencing, probability of intelligent targeting functions, scoring rules and that these visitors cannot be taken into account in the calculation of increment tests.

Incremental tests and engagement statistics click rate, engagement rate … (only available through export on demand) will no longer be available

 

Solution 2

CMP integrated: share with your CMP the visitor cookie consent.

 

This mode is more advanced but offers you a way to manage iAdvize cookie consent that is fully integrated to your CMP.

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Here are the two key steps to deploy this mode:

2.1 Communicate the visitor's consent from your CMP to iAdvize

You will need to implement the Explicit cookie consent script to each page of your website to communicate the visitor’s  consent on the cookie consent banner or from the chatbox during their navigation and share it with your CMP through this script:

<script>
window.iAdvizeInterface = window.iAdvizeInterface || [];
window.iAdvizeInterface.push(function(iAdvize) {
  var iAdvizeConsent = iAdvize.get('visitor:cookiesConsent');
  if (iAdvizeConsent !== CMP_iAdvizeConsent) {
    iAdvize.set('visitor:cookiesConsent', CMP_iAdvizeConsent);
  }
});
</script>

Note:

  • You will need to add / run this script above each time the user sets or updates their consent and implement it to each page
  • Replace CMP_iAdvizeConsent by the consent value retrieved from you CMP
    Values expected by iAdvize: true or false

2.2 When the visitors give their consent inside iAdvize’s chatbox, you will need to communicate this change to your CMP

Here is how:

<script>
function updateIAdvizeConsentInCMP(consent) {
  // update your CMP for iAdvize
}

window.iAdvizeInterface = window.iAdvizeInterface || [];
window.iAdvizeInterface.push(function(iAdvize) {
  iAdvize.on('visitor:cookiesConsentChange', updateIAdvizeConsentInCMP)
}
</script>

Note: 

  • Without this code your CMP may erase iAdvize cookies, and visitors lose their ongoing conversations
  • If your CMP does not allow the update by vendors to change the visitor's consent for iAdvize, you will need to dedicate to iAdvize its own category of cookies inside your CMP.

Legal recommendation: 

Regarding your Consent Management Platform (CMP), best will be to: 

  • Dedicate to iAdvize’s cookie its own category so that it is easier to update after the visitor changed their consent from the chatbox
  • Manage your CMP by vendors (some CMP allow it) and associate iAdvize to a vendor category, so that the visitor’s agreement will also be updated after their consent from the chatbox

Expiration date: 

iAdvize sets an expiration date by default of 12 months for the cookie. You can customize this expiration date by adding a third parameter expressed in seconds.

 

For example to set the expiration date of one year:

<script>
window.iAdvizeInterface = window.iAdvizeInterface || [];
window.iAdvizeInterface.push(function(iAdvize) {
	iAdvize.set('visitor:cookiesConsent', true, 31536000);
});
</script>

To go further :

  • As a visitor who already had an iAdvize conversation and now refuses cookies: the cookie will be cleaned and so, the visitor will lose access to its conversation history
  • There is no impact on the tag performance with this new parameter
  • Transaction tag: how it works? No difference
  • Custom data tag: how it works? Custom data present on the page will be available for the targeting engine, however, custom data on the previous pages for a visitor that did not consent won’t be available for the targeting engine
  • Duration of consent: starting a conversation extends the lifetime of the iAdvize cookie, to guarantee access to the conversation to the visitor
  • Duration is 12 months

3. Admin setup for GDPR consent

2 sections have been added in the Settings > Privacy > GDPR tab to allow the visitor to specify that an iAdvize cookie will be set when accepting the GDPR banner at the start of the conversation.

Both sections are customizable.

Section 1: Personalize the message when opening the chatbox

Default message:
[ENG] "To support you to the best of our ability, we use a conversational cookie and keep a history of that conversation. We also have access to your site navigation."

Engagement > Setting > Privacy > Display of legal information

Legal-Information-GDPR.png

 

This message will be visible in the preview of the GDPR inside the chatbox.

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In case you wish not to ask to the visitor their GDPR consent, you can add this script behind the visitor cookie's consent. That way, the visitors giving their consent in your CMP won’t have to consent in the chatbox.

<script>
window.iAdvizeInterface = window.iAdvizeInterface || [];
window.iAdvizeInterface.push(function(iAdvize) {
	iAdvize.set('visitor:GDPRConsent', true);
});
</script>

Section 2: Enter your legal info

A section dedicated to cookie has been added Cookie deposit” and can be customizable. 
To make it appear you will need to update the GDPR page.

Default message:

[ENG] "The cookie (vuID) that we deposit on your browser is technically necessary for the display and provision of the chat service (exchange with an agent or a chatbot). It is also used to store the language used, the number of pages viewed, the browsing time and the time of connection, and the browser type, and their URL."

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