A control that does nothing
Enforcement actions in California have described banners that claimed to switch tracking off and opt-out requests that were never processed.
Signal Check
See what still fires after an opt-out.
Signal Check loads your site the way a visitor does, sends an opt-out, and reports which tags still fire. It keeps a dated record of each test.
What goes wrong
The banner looks right. The tags may not be listening.
Several state privacy laws require a site to honor a browser opt-out signal. California regulators have fined companies whose opt-out controls looked correct and did not work.
Tags outside the tag manager
Vendor guides note that a tag written directly into a page can fire before the tag manager loads, so a consent setting in the tag manager may not reach it.
A release that undoes the fix
A new marketing tag or a theme change can bring back a tag that was blocked last month. Nobody is told.
Enforcement is shifting to regulators
California narrowed one kind of private tracking lawsuit by a law signed in 2026. Regulator action over broken opt-outs has continued.
How it works
Test from outside, the way a regulator would.
Signal Check loads a site with and without an opt-out signal and repeats the tests on a schedule. It runs on the same consent record, rule library and append-only log as the other eight modules.
- It loads the site twice
- Once as an ordinary visitor and once sending a browser opt-out signal. The difference between the two runs is the finding.
- It uses your own controls
- Signal Check presses the reject or opt-out control on the banner and records what loads afterwards.
- It names what fired
- Each tag that loaded after the opt-out is listed with the page it loaded on and the time.
- It keeps every run
- Each test goes to the append-only log with its date, so you can show what was true on a given day and when a problem was fixed.
Features
What Signal Check is made of
Test with and without a signal
Loads your site twice, once as an ordinary visitor and once sending a browser opt-out signal, and compares what loads.
Banner opt-out test
Uses the opt-out or reject control on your banner and records which tags fire afterwards.
Named tags
Names each advertising or analytics tag that fired after the opt-out and the page it fired on.
Opt-out link check
Checks that an opt-out link is present on the page and that it leads to a working control.
Scheduled re-tests
Repeats the tests on a schedule and after a release, and says what changed since the last run.
Dated report
Keeps each test with its date, the pages loaded and the results, in a form you can hand to counsel or a regulator.
On the platform
The steps of the consent record this module runs
All nine steps run in every module, from capturing what a person was shown to producing the record when someone asks for it.
- 3. Check
- Compare the captured wording and flow against the rule that applies: a carrier registration requirement, a calling rule, a state renewal law, a card-network evidence standard.
- 6. Record
- Write the decision, the inputs and their dates to a log that is appended to and never edited, so it can be produced later exactly as it was.
- 8. Watch
- Re-run the checks when a page changes, a rule changes or a registration lapses, and say what changed.
- 9. Produce
- Export the record for one person as a single packet: for a carrier reviewer, a card network, an auditor or your own counsel.
What this does not do
Where Signal Check stops
It only sees what is visible from outside
Contracts with vendors, risk assessments and how quickly you answer a privacy request cannot be tested by loading a page.
It does not follow a signed-in customer across devices
Regulators have expected an opt-out to apply to a known customer on every device. A test from outside cannot fully check that.
It does not block tags
Signal Check reports. It is not a consent banner and does not change what your site loads.
It does not replace counsel
Most US state privacy laws work by opt-out, so a tag that loads before any choice is made is not always a breach. What a finding means for you is a legal question.
Read next
The guide, the article and the quiz
Reviewed 12 November 2026
Consentra is software. Nothing on this site is legal advice, and using Consentra does not by itself make a business compliant with any law or carrier rule. Whether a rule applies to your business is a question for your counsel.
See the consent record for yourself
Book a call and we show you the record on your own flow: what each person saw, what they agreed to, and what you can hand over when someone asks.