Analytics cookies
Analytics cookies let a website count visits and measure how visitors use its pages, for example by recognizing a returning browser, and in the EU they need consent unless a national exemption applies.Tools such as Google Analytics 4, Matomo and Hotjar set cookies with a visitor identifier so they can tell new visitors from returning ones, follow a path through the site and attribute conversions. Under Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive, that storage is not strictly necessary for the service the visitor asked for, so the default rule is prior consent.
Some countries carve out an exemption for limited, first-party measurement. The CNIL exempts audience measurement that is used only to produce anonymous statistics for the site owner, with trackers living no longer than 13 months, among other conditions. The UK's statistical purposes exception, in force since 5 February 2026 under the UK rules, allows some analytics without consent if visitors are told and can object. Both exemptions are narrow: data shared with the vendor for its own purposes, or combined with advertising, falls back under the consent rule.
Two practical points follow. Analytics scripts belong in their own category on the banner, separate from marketing, so visitors can accept one without the other. And Google's tags can respect the choice through Consent Mode, which maps this category to the analytics_storage signal. For options that avoid cookies altogether, see analytics without consent.