Documentation

With Consent Overlays you can inform your visitors about external services and request their consent before loading the service. Consent Overlays are highly customizable and fully adapt to your YOOtheme Pro style. You can even show thumbnails of your map and video content which will be automatically fetched and cached by this extension. The visitor's privacy is still protected until the consent is given.

Services & Data Protection

Consent Overlays do not only block cookies but external services themselves. There is no connection to any third-party servers unless the user has given his consent to load the service. Currently, this high level of data protection applies to these services (with integrators in braces):

• Google Analytics (YOOtheme Pro)
• Google Maps (YOOtheme Pro, DPCalendar*)
• OpenStreetMap (YOOtheme Pro, DPCalendar*)
• reCAPTCHA (Joomla!, RSForm!Pro)
• Vimeo (YOOtheme Pro, Joomla!)
• YouTube (YOOtheme Pro, Joomla!)

If you are missing some popular service or integrator, you can inform us. However, there is no garantuee that a certain service will be integrated in future versions. There are many services and an even more combinations of services x integrators that won't all be covered.

Consent Overlays are highly customizable and fully adapt to your YOOtheme Pro style. You can create an overlay, text or banner for each external service. Depending on the service different templates are used:

Overlay

The Overlay template applies to Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, Vimeo and YouTube. It handles map and video content that is embedded in YOOtheme Pro Pages. The Overlay template uses the following content blocks:

• Title
• Content
• Info Button
• Consent Button
• Withdrawal Button

The Content block is the most flexible one. You can display a single paragraph or create a custom layout as well. You can even render custom text as Info Button or Consent Button by using the shown syntax.

The Info Button is a link to your privacy policy in order to fully inform your visitors about the data processing service. If you prefer to link to a certain section of your policy you can append its #id to the link.

The Consent Button is connected to a special function. When clicked the user's consent will be set in the browser storage and the external service will be enabled.

The Withdrawal Button only appears when the consent is given. It is connected to a special function as well. When clicked the user's consent will be removed from the browser storage and the external service will be disabled.

Text

The Text template applies to reCAPTCHA. The Text template uses the following content blocks:

• Content
• Withdrawal Button

The Content block is used to show a paragraph with Info Button and Consent Button incorporated. You have to use a special syntax to render custom text as buttons. You will find an instruction underneath the editor field.

The Withdrawal Button works the same as described in the Overlay template.

Banner

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Consent Overlays can automatically fetch and show thumbnails of your map and video content (i.e. Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, Vimeo and YouTube). To enable thumbnail generation you need to insert your API key for the corresponding service.

Maps Static API

This API is used to generate static images for your Google Maps map. Once you have entered your API key our extension fetches thumbnails based on your center coordinates and zoom settings. 

Geoapify

This API is used to generate static images for your OpenStreetMap map. Once you have entered your API key our extension fetches thumbnails based on your center coordinates and zoom settings. 

Vimeo oEmbed v2

This API is used to request the link for the thumbnail with highest resolution. You don't have to enter an API key. Thumbnails are fetched based on the video ID.

YouTube Data API v3

This API is used to request the link for the thumbnail with highest resolution. Once you have entered your API key our extension fetches thumbnails based on the video ID.

Consent Overlays can be used on multilingual sites to display your content in different languages. To achieve this, create your own language constants, place them in the corresponding customizer fields and translate your constants using language overrides.

Translatable fields

All content blocks recognize language constants and will translate them into language strings. You can use language constants within these fields:

• Title
• Content
• Image Alt
• Info Button Text
• Consent Button Text
• Withdrawal Button Text

How to translate

We will show you an example how to use language constants and translate them in Joomla!.

1. Go to Joomla! Backend → YOOtheme Pro → Corporate Tools → Consent Tools → Consent Overlay → reCAPTCHA → Content.
2. Switch the editor to Code view and enter exactly the following language constant
   CORPORATE_CONSENT_RECAPTCHA_CONTENT.
3. Go to Joomla! Backend → System → Language Overrides.
4. Select your frontend language, for example English (United Kingdom) - Site.
5. Click New in the toolbar.
6. Into the Language Constant field, enter exactly
   CORPORATE_CONSENT_RECAPTCHA_CONTENT.
7. Into the Text field, enter your translated language string with respect to special syntax elements. Your language string could look like this:
   <strong>We need your consent to load the reCAPTCHA service!</strong> We use reCAPTCHA to check your entered information. This service may collect data about your activity. Please <strong>[review the details](info)</strong> and <strong>[accept the service](consent)</strong> to proceed.

Block services instead of cookies

We believe that blocking third-party technologies has advantages over just blocking cookies. If I am a website visitor with poor technical knowledge I cannot determine which cookies are "bad" and which are "not so bad".

Instead, I have to decide whether I want to watch this video or not. And I will make my decision on plain information like: What data is collected? Who receives my data? And for what purpose? All these questions can be answered before loading the service and without establishing a connection to third-party servers.

Wrap external scripts into local functions

Loading technologies asynchronously or afterwards implies that associated external scripts must not be preloaded. To achieve this, the HTML document must be changed server-side. Otherwise, your browser will load these external scripts from Google, Facebook or whatever external service is embedded in the website you are visiting at the moment.

Preloading files implies reporting personal data to your opposite like IP address or date and time of access. But at that moment you have not given your consent to this service yet. We can prevent this pre-connection by wrapping the link of the external ressource into a javascript function. By doing so the external ressources will only be loaded if you have given your consent and when you really need them.

Execute services when scripts are ready

This is no special technique but crucial for third-party services when they use more than one script that is loaded asynchronously. In case of one script relies on another the dependent script must no be executed before the underlying object is loaded and ready for use. Otherwise, there will be errors and malfunctions.

Consent Overlays assist you in technically complying with the GDPR. They do not excuse you from creating a correct privacy policy with individual legal support. As a site owner, you are fully responsible for the technical and legal implementation of your data protection strategy. This section provides technical information to you on how data protection works with this plugin.

Local Consent Storage

One principle of GDPR is to limit the collection of personal data to what is really necessary in order to accomplish a purpose. The purpose of this module is to enable/disable external services based on the visitor's decision.

Therefore, this module only saves the consent status in the LocalStorage of the visitor's browser. This is done for each single service. Downside is that consent decisions are not stored for documentation purposes. If you need to store consent decisions securely for such purposes, you can extend Consent Overlays by enabling a Consent Management Provider such as Usercentrics.

Proxy Data Processing

When requesting a thumbnail for an external services, a connection to an API will be established and an IP address will be transmitted. Thus, personal data will be processed without any prior consent. If the visitor's browser made that request this would result in a violation against the GDPR.

With Consent Overlays you run your own proxy server that listens to visitor requests, fetches the desired thumbnail from the API and delivers it to the visitor. Thus, your visitors will only connect to your own website and no personal data will be transmitted to any third-party servers.