Add a cookie / consent banner if you have any non-US traffic - shippingszn launch readiness

A small banner that asks visitors before you load analytics, ad pixels, or any non-essential tracking. Required by law in the EU and UK (GDPR/ePrivacy), and increasingly in California, Brazil, Canada, and a growing list of US states. Even if your business is US-only, the moment one person from London visits your site, you're inside their rules.

Fines for missing consent banners are real — up to 4% of global revenue under GDPR — and enforcement against small sites has ramped up. Even before fines, app stores, ad networks, and analytics tools (Google in particular) increasingly require valid consent signals before they'll work properly.

Owner verification required: Whether a consent banner is required depends on what tracking cookies the live app sets and which jurisdictions you serve. Runtime + legal call, not a code property.

The Launch Fix Kit keeps scan-specific findings, file and line evidence, AI-builder punch-list tasks, and verification steps tied to the paid report.

Use a battle-tested library: CookieConsent (open-source, free), Klaro, or a service like Cookiebot or Termly. Don't build this from scratch.
Inventory every cookie and tracker your app sets. Group into 'Strictly necessary' (auth, session — always on) and 'Analytics & marketing' (off by default).
Block analytics scripts, ad pixels, and any third-party tracker from loading until the user opts in. Most consent libraries handle this if wired correctly.
Make 'Reject all' a single click and equally prominent as 'Accept all.' Dark patterns ('Accept all' is a big button, 'Reject' is hidden) are themselves illegal.
Add a persistent way to change consent later — usually a footer link like 'Cookie preferences.'

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Canonical URL: https://shippingszn.com/i/consent-banner/