Before the rise of data privacy laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), there were far fewer protections for users’ privacy in most regions around the world. Personal data was scraped everywhere consumers went (in person and especially online), and they had no visibility into who had access to it or how it was used.
And yet, all of this data did surprisingly little to help companies understand their users and customers. Most of it was low quality, and large amounts had to be combined to create imprecise profiles.
As coverage of privacy regulations increased, companies worried about losing their access to data and not being able to effectively run their marketing operations. But new laws and policies from influential platforms have catalyzed a shift to more direct and higher quality data sources — and created a major marketing opportunity.
Implementing consent and preference management for a universal consent strategy means companies can know their customers better than ever and provide them the best possible user experiences. And they can do it all while complying with the requirements of data privacy regulations.
We explore the intersection of consent and preference management and explain how this new approach to processing customer data can give you a healthier bottom line.
Consent and preference management: main concepts explained
- Consent management enables users to agree to or decline data processing, while preference management gives them granular control over communication frequency, channels, and content.
- Universal consent management centralizes choices across platforms and regulations, creating consistency and reducing compliance risks.
- Permission management requires explicit authorization for actions like marketing communications, data sharing, or employee access to sensitive systems.
- To build trust and achieve privacy compliance, businesses must request consent transparently, log and respect choices across all systems, and make it easy for users to update or withdraw their preferences any time.
Before we dig into the specifics of achieving privacy compliance, it’s important to understand the basics of consent management, preference management, universal consent management, and permission management.
| Consent management | Preference management | Universal consent management | Permission management |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collecting, storing, signaling, and proving user consent for data use in line with privacy laws. | Enabling individuals to choose communication channels, frequency, and content types for personalized engagement. | Applying consent choices across multiple platforms and regulations, thereby combining legal compliance with preference controls. | Securing explicit authorization for communications, third-party data sharing, or access to sensitive systems. |
What is consent management?
The focus of consent management is on providing any individual whose personal data you may collect with the ability to agree to or decline the collection and use of that data, which can include anything from names and email addresses to IP addresses, browsing activity, and credit card information.
The specific requirements of data privacy laws vary, but you’ll generally need to explain what data you’re collecting and why, as well as who may have access to it, and enable customers to decline or withdraw their consent at any point. Information about how individuals can exercise their rights are also typically required.
Depending on the privacy law, you’ll also need to either:
- Collect explicit opt-in consent (as required by the GDPR, for example) before collecting any personal data
or:
- Enable opt-out consent (as required by the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), for example) though in most cases prior consent is not required
When website visitors or app users agree to your data collection practices, you can collect zero-party data. This information, along with first-party data from their specific activities, is extremely valuable because it comes directly from your audience, rather than third-party sources.
In practice, collecting this consent may look like a cookie banner that enables someone to accept analytics cookies while rejecting marketing cookies. This choice is logged, stored, and signaled to third-party platforms, supporting privacy compliance while respecting user preferences.
What is preference management?
Preference management gives customers granular control over how they engage with your business. It enables them to set communication preferences, such as the type of communications they want to receive, how often they want to receive them, and through which channels.
For example, a customer might opt in to sharing their email address to receive a monthly newsletter or be notified about sales, but decline SMS alerts.
When combined with existing customer data — e.g. purchase history, subscription level, or account information — these preferences enable you to create a customer profile that guides your team on how, what, and when to communicate with a particular customer.A robust preference management solution can help. These tools help you avoid over-communication, reduce opt-outs, and build trust while still delivering the most relevant content in the way the customer prefers.
What is universal consent management?
Universal consent management enables you to coordinate and centralize consent choices and preferences across multiple channels, platforms, and regulatory requirements. In other words, its focus is more comprehensive than just whether a user agrees to data collection on one website or app.
Universal consent management typically involves:
- Applying consent choices consistently to comply with both customer choices and relevant data privacy laws.
- Integrating consent choices and preferences to align communications with user expectations.
- Replacing fragmented cookie-based tracking with centralized, consent-driven systems.
For example, under traditional consent management, a user might agree to analytics cookies on your website but still need to re-confirm their choices when using your mobile app.
With universal consent management, their decision is logged once, stored centrally, and automatically applied across all channels. This not only helps to maintain compliance with multiple regulations but also creates a more consistent customer experience.
What is permission management?
Permission management is the practice of obtaining explicit authorization from individuals before certain actions are taken.
In compliance contexts, permission management often covers:
- Marketing communications: Securing opt-in (often via double opt-in) to align messages with customer preferences and comply with relevant regulations
- Third-party data sharing: Gaining prior approval before sharing customer data with partners, including transparency about what data is shared, with whom, and why
- User access controls: Managing permissions inside software platforms so only authorized employees can access certain data
Consider an online retailer launching a loyalty program. Before sending promotional SMS offers, the business must obtain explicit permission to contact customers by text. At the same time, only a limited number of staff should be given permission to access and export customer records.
Consent models across privacy frameworks
While the exact requirements of individual data privacy regulations vary, the underlying theme is the same: individuals must be empowered to control how their data is used, and businesses must design systems that make it easy to exercise that control. Businesses also need to make it clear to audiences what the benefits are to consenting to provide their data.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
The GDPR sets one of the strictest global standards for what constitutes valid consent. It has broad applications, from marketing communications to cookie tracking (even data collected offline), which makes GDPR compliance requirements a benchmark many other privacy laws reference or emulate.
According to Art. 7 GDPR, consent must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous. It typically requires an active opt-in, such as ticking a box or making choices with granular consent and preference management controls. Data subjects rights protect individuals’ ability to withdraw consent as easily as they gave it, and at any time. Organizations must also keep clear records of customer choices over time to demonstrate privacy compliance.
The ePrivacy Directive
The ePrivacy Directive (sometimes called the “cookie law”) works alongside the GDPR to regulate electronic communications. This framework is the reason why businesses whose websites attract visitors from countries in the EU must display cookie banners.
Users must give prior consent before any tracking technologies — like cookies and pixels — can be used to store or access their information. This consent must also meet GDPR standards, which means it has to be explicit, informed, freely given, and specific.
The Digital Services Act
The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) complements the GDPR but focuses more directly on transparency and accountability for “very large online platforms or search engines” typically shortened to VLOPS, i.e. those whose average users reach or exceed 10 percent of the EU population (a little less than 45 million.)
In terms of consent, the DSA requires that users be given meaningful control over how their data is used for targeted advertising. In particular, platforms cannot rely on vague or bundled consent; users must actively opt in and they must be able to easily withdraw their choice.
The DSA also introduces new restrictions. Targeted advertising cannot be based on sensitive categories like political beliefs, sexual orientation, or religion, and profiling of minors for advertising is prohibited.
The Digital Markets Act (DMA)
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) reinforces GDPR principles by requiring that the designated gatekeepers — currently seven major global tech companies — obtain explicit consent before combining personal data across services or using it for targeted advertising. Users must also be able to revoke that consent as easily as they granted it.
A key distinction from other laws is that the DMA prohibits gatekeepers from making access to a service conditional upon giving consent for data use beyond what’s strictly necessary to provide the service. For example, a user can’t be forced to agree to cross-platform tracking just to use a messaging app.
The European Union Artificial Intelligence Act
The EU AI Act is the first comprehensive legal framework that specifically addresses AI. It sets clear rules for when consent is needed for AI-driven processing.
For example, organizations must obtain explicit, informed consent from individuals if AI systems use biometric identification, emotion recognition, or process sensitive personal data.
This means that AI tools must be deployed with notices and preference management enablers so that individuals know when AI is being used and have a genuine choice to opt in or out.
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
The CCPA — the first and most influential modern state-level data privacy law in the US — takes a different approach to consent than the GDPR. Instead of a strict opt-in model, it generally permits businesses to collect and use personal data by default unless consumers actively opt out.
There are some exceptions. Sensitive personal information, e.g. precise geolocation, sexual orientation, or health data, and data belonging to children under 16 require explicit opt-in consent (from a parent or guardian in the case of children’s data.)
Businesses must also provide clear, accessible ways for consumers to exercise their rights, including “Do Not Sell Or Share My Personal Information” links. Plus, organizations need to respect consumer choices across all systems in real time.
Other laws, policies, and guidelines that shape consent requirements
Beyond major frameworks like the GDPR or CCPA, several other rules shape how businesses manage customer consent choices and preferences.
In Europe, national laws complement the GDPR, such as:
- Germany’s Telecommunications Telemedia Data Protection Act (TTDPA)
- Switzerland’s Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP)
These regulations impose similar requirements around cookies, tracking, and transparency.
Industry-specific requirements across the EU/EEA include:
- IAB Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF v2.2), which sets standards for communicating user choices across the digital advertising ecosystem.
- Google Consent Mode v2, which requires businesses to capture valid consent signals before running tags for Google Ads or Analytics.
And in the US:
- The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) governs the collection and use of protected health information in healthcare and healthcare insurance industries.
- The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) establishes privacy and security requirements for financial institutions to protect consumer data.
- The Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) initially protected personal data from video rentals, but today also covers digital video platforms and streaming services.
Whether through national laws, industry frameworks, or platform rules, the directive is clear: businesses must give people simple, transparent ways to control their data.
How should you ask for and record user consent?
Most people are familiar with consent banners, or the pop-ups that appear on websites and apps asking for permission to use cookies or other tracking technologies.
While these banners are important, they’re only one part of a broader consent and preference management process. To achieve compliance and build trust, consent should be gathered and managed systematically across all touchpoints where you collect or process personal data.
Here’s how to do it right:
- Explain it clearly: Tell users what data you want to collect, why you’re collecting it, who will have access to it, and how it will be used. Avoid legal jargon. Using plain language helps prevent misunderstandings and build customer trust.
- Offer granular choice: Provide opt-in options for each of your individual data collection activities to give users control. Avoid presenting pre-checked boxes or bundled consent.
- Use layered design and contextual consent: Present simple, essential choices up front and make more detail about your data processing activities available for those who want it, such as specific cookie categories or communication types. Or in context, like to be able to play a video on your site that’s of interest.
- Log and store consent: Record when, how, and for what purpose consent was given. Also include what specific information the user was presented each time. Doing so helps you not only respect customer choices but also demonstrate and achieve compliance during audits or data subject access requests (DSARs).
- Enable easy withdrawal: Provide clear, accessible ways for users to review or change their consent and preference choices at any time via preference centers or other easily accessible platforms.
Signal consent downstream: Share users’ decisions and signal consent information to third-party platforms and tools that can access the data you collect to help ensure those choices are respected everywhere.
Manage user consent choices and preferences in one place with Usercentrics
Privacy regulations are tightening worldwide, and businesses that manage consent manually risk falling behind. Usercentrics offers the tools you need to meet the requirements of various data privacy laws.
Our platform unifies consent and preference management across channels, supporting compliance with regulations and frameworks like the GDPR, CCPA, and TCF v2.2 via brand-aligned consent and preference banners.
With advanced features like granular preference controls and audit-ready records, Usercentrics makes it simple to both respect user rights and prove regulatory compliance.
The result is a more consistent experience for customers and a stronger foundation for businesses that want to build customer loyalty while meeting the requirements of various data privacy regulations.
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