Microsoft will begin enforcing consent signal requirements for Clarity on October 31, 2025. Clarity is the company’s behavioral analytics tool for understanding website and app interactions to improve outcomes and user experience.
The new requirement applies to page visits originating from the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom (UK), and Switzerland (CH). These regions are protected by strong data protection laws, including the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), and Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP).
This update with Clarity follows a similar path as with Google Consent Mode and Microsoft UET Consent Mode, which require websites to properly communicate users’ consent choices before collecting analytics and advertising data.
What is Microsoft Clarity?
- Mandatory consent signals: From October 31, 2025, Microsoft Clarity will enforce consent signal requirements for visitors from the EEA, UK, and Switzerland.
- Compliance with privacy laws: The Clarity Consent Signal supports compliance with the GDPR, UK GDPR, and FADP for data collected via Clarity.
- Clarity Consent API: Manually controls data collection, preventing tracking until explicit user consent is granted.
- Integration with CMPs: Websites must use a consent management platform (CMP) that integrates with Microsoft Clarity to collect and signal accurate consent information.
- Usercentrics CMP support: Usercentrics CMP integrates with Microsoft Clarity, Google Consent Mode, Microsoft UET Consent Mode, and Amazon Consent Signal for synchronized privacy compliance for ads, analytics, and more.
- Benefits: Enables continued data flow, builds user trust, and aligns with cross-platform privacy standards and regulatory requirements.
- Privacy-Led Marketing™: The enforcement highlights the importance of transparent privacy practices for business credibility and customer relationships.
Microsoft Clarity is a free analytics tool that helps website owners understand user behavior through heatmaps, session recordings, and filtering and segmentation. It provides insights via a dashboard into engagement and usability without impacting site performance.
With this new enforcement and proper implementation, Clarity will only collect data for these functions based on valid user consent to enable compliance with GDPR, UK GDPR, FADP, and other relevant regulations and frameworks.
What is the Clarity Consent API?
The Microsoft Clarity Consent API enables website owners to manually control when Clarity begins collecting data. Unlike automated consent solutions, this API requires websites to explicitly signal when user consent has been granted. Only once that consent is received will Clarity start tracking activity. If a user does not provide consent, Clarity’s tracking remains inactive.
This helps businesses to comply with the requirements of privacy regulations by making sure that tracking and analytics features remain inactive until valid consent is provided.
Key functions of the Clarity Consent API
Working with consent signals sent from a CMP, the Clarity Consent API enables website owners to:
- Prevent data collection until user consent is obtained, or collection of unauthorized data
- Integrate with Google Consent Mode, maintaining consistency across existing privacy setups
- Respect consent changes or withdrawal, immediately stopping tracking when a user revokes or declines consent
- Disable tracking and clear cookies if consent is denied or withdrawn
Clarity Consent API helps companies deliver on transparency and enable stronger user control over access to personal data. These are both essential requirements of regulations like the GDPR, in addition to addressing growing consumer demands regarding data privacy.
How will consent signal enforcement work in Microsoft Clarity?
Clarity tracking for users in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland depends on the consent signals provided by your website, i.e., via the consent banner displayed by your installed consent management platform (CMP).
If a visitor declines consent for data collection, Clarity must adjust or limit tracking accordingly. When visitors grant consent, Clarity can track based on the data processing that the user has agreed to.
To comply with Microsoft’s new requirements for Clarity, companies using it and collecting data from users in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland must:
- Use a CMP that integrates with Microsoft Clarity
- Send accurate consent signals before any data is processed
- Review your website’s cookie banner and consent configuration to confirm that it includes Microsoft Clarity tracking
How does Usercentrics CMP work with Microsoft Clarity?
When you’ve implemented the Usercentrics CMP, you’ll display your customized cookie banners on your website or app, which is where visitors make their consent choices. If the user provides explicit consent, the CMP passes the consent signal to the Clarity Consent API, and Clarity begins tracking.
Usercentrics CMP also has Google Consent Mode and Microsoft UET Consent Mode integrated, so your analytics and marketing stack can remain privacy-compliant and synchronized.
Benefits of the Clarity update
Failure to collect and signal valid consent will result in non-compliant tracking, a violation of the laws of the affected regions. Adopting a setup that includes comprehensive consent management and signaling to Microsoft clarity allows for :
- Continued data flow for analytics and insights
- Stronger user trust through transparent privacy practices
- Alignment with cross-platform privacy standards
Major platforms and their tools, like those for advertising and analytics, are increasingly converging with regulatory requirements and the evolution of data privacy law.
How Microsoft Clarity Consent signal supports Privacy-Led Marketing
Updates like these from major platforms highlight the value and importance of Privacy-Led Marketing™. Privacy requirements and respecting consent are non-negotiable, not just to protect your business and revenue, but to have credibility with consumer audiences.
People no longer do business with companies they don’t trust, whether for advertising, tracking, or other marketing functions. When companies put transparency and user trust at the center of their digital strategy, they strengthen customer relationships and stand out in a competitive marketplace.
Microsoft Clarity with Usercentrics Web CMP can help businesses strike the right balance between meaningful analytics and user privacy. This integration enables seamless consent management and privacy-compliant data collection.
Combining privacy compliance and user control with Clarity’s behavioral insights, companies can responsibly use consented data to refine user experiences and improve performance. It’s a future-ready approach that unites privacy, trust, and growth.
Setting up Microsoft Clarity with Usercentrics CMP
Follow these steps to set up the Microsoft Consent Mode:
- Navigate to your configuration.
- Under Service Settings > Data Processing Services, click the Add DPS via database button. Add the Microsoft Clarity service to the list of services, with the Marketing category.
- Publish the changes.
- Enable Microsoft Clarity Consent Mode under Configuration > CMP Settings > Microsoft Clarity Consent Mode.
- Make sure that the script tag is implemented on the website.
When enabled, Usercentrics sets the necessary properties on the website so that Microsoft only uses user data for ads and analytics if consent is given. The permissions are mapped to:
- Marketing category
- Microsoft Clarity (Template ID: jzMEq56vW) data processing service
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