FAQ & Release Posts
Google Analytics or Consent Compliance Audits
Which audit tool to use?
Two tools that compliment each other:
Verified ANALYTICS audits Google Analytics properties for personal identifiable information (PII) and data quality. Access is via your own Google’s OAuth account. The app inspects data via the Google Analytics API, drilling down and applying “decision tree” logic.
Verified CONSENT is a crawler that audits a website for privacy compliance via consent-state testing. It validates behaviour before consent, after accept, and after reject. It categorises what tracking technologies load and if these match the legal basis of either the GDPR, or CCPA privacy laws.
How often can I run an audit?
As often as you wish. Once a project is set up, there are no limits to the number of times you can audit it. Bear in mind that Google Analytics has limits on using its APIs and websites have limits on how often they allow crawlers. You can also schedule audits to run automatically and be alerted when something has changed.
How many pages should I audit for privacy compliance?
Our research study established the following:
- 25–50 pages: Enough for a quick health check on whether a site respects “Reject All” consent choices.
- 100 pages: Sufficient to uncover 90% of all cookies and trackers on most websites.
- For more details, download our compliance study
Is there an agency version?
Yes. We have two billing models that allow you to manage/scale client projects, receive discounts, and provide a sales commission. See our Agency page for more details.
Can I create client or sub account?
Yes. Within your Account area you can create a sub acocunt e.g. for your client if you are an agency, or for your subdidivisions as a corporate. You can create an unlimited number of sub accounts:
Sub accounts are linked to the creator/master account and you navigate between these via the Workspace dropdown.
See our Agency page for details about agency benefits of using sub accounts.
Do you have an API?
Yes for both audit tools – see this API reference.
We have a cookie banner, can its set up be verified?
Yes. Verified CONSENT is exactly the tool for this and has a unique consent selector for this job. It verifies the consent options of your cookie banner – any consent option and for any consent management platform.
Can I setup multiple Verified Data accounts?
A Verified Data account is owned by an organisation. Create one for your company, then add your colleagues for access. Both agency and enterprise organisations can create multiple accounts and link them together as Workspaces.
As a Partner Agency you can create accounts for each or your clients. Alternatively you can manage all of your clients within your own account – adding more projects as you grow. Similarly enterprise organisations can create an account for their separate divisions e.g. EU, North America, Asia.
How to Whitelist Your Crawler
If your website firewall (for example, Cloudflare) blocks or slows down the Verified CONSENT crawler, you can whitelist its user-agent. This ensures our audit can run smoothly without being throttled or blocked. More details here.
Is there a FREE account to try out?
Yes and there is no expiry date. All audit features are available with a free account for a single project/site. The paid version has more horsepower and management features. Typically, this applies if you are an agency, consultancy, or an in-house team that manages multiple web properties and/or handles large quantities of data.
Our pricing model is a no-brainer because it is fair – unlimited audits per project and you can re-use project slots.
If personal data (PII) is found in my GA4 account, do you also store it?
No personal data is stored on our servers. Our intelligent algorithms first flag any suspicious personal data found. Then we scrub the suspected match during processing i.e. while still in memory. See the PII Reference Guide.
How long does an audit take?
A Verified CONSENT audit depends on how many pages you crawl. It must wait for each page and its assets to download before testing (excluding images and videos). It also listens to your server response times so that it does not interfere with performance. Therefore as an guesstimate, allow 4 seconds per page.
Can I export my audit results?
Yes, either by exporting audit results as a csv file, or programatically via our API.
How accurate are the checks for personal information (PII)?
Our AI detection technology, powered by Google, scans for potential personal data in your Google Analytics account and allows you to monitor this. See our PII Reference Guide for details.
As an agency, how can I use Verified Data?
- Save money: Verified Data does all the heavy lifting for you so you can free up staff resources.
- Make money: Providing an independent data quality/auditing service is a valuable service in itself, though identifying and providing fixes is where the money is.
- New business: Go to clients with an audit prepared so you can pitch intelligently. If you don’t get the business, simply delete and re-use the project for a different prospect.
See our agency page.