GDPR consent

The Flare client can run behind a cookie consent or GDPR banner. When consent is off, the client sends nothing and it doesn't even construct any reports or traces.

The Flare client never sets cookies, but it does read cookies when attaching context to an error. Asking the user's consent is mostly about the data the client sends to Flare.

Turning the client on and off

By default the consent configuration setting starts at true. Enabling/disabling consent is one method:

flare.setConsent(true); // allow sending
flare.setConsent(false); // stop sending, and drop anything captured earlier

setConsent(false) stops all data from leaving the browser. It also drops any buffered logs and spans collected up to that point, so when later a setConsent(true) cannot ship data captured while consent was off.

Recommended setup

Do not call flare.light() until the visitor accepts the consent banner. Without light(), the client sends nothing.

import { flare } from '@flareapp/js';

// Cookiebot example. OneTrust exposes OptanonWrapper; the idea is the same.
window.addEventListener('CookiebotOnAccept', () => {
    flare.light('YOUR PROJECT KEY'); // first grant: start the client
    flare.setConsent(true); // and allow sending
});

window.addEventListener('CookiebotOnDecline', () => {
    flare.setConsent(false); // withdrawal: stop all sends, drop buffers
});

Starting with consent off

If you already call flare.light() at boot, start with consent off instead, then turn it on when the visitor accepts:

import { flare } from '@flareapp/js';

flare.configure({ hasConsent: false }); // start off, before anything can send
flare.light('YOUR PROJECT KEY');

window.addEventListener('CookiebotOnAccept', () => flare.setConsent(true));
window.addEventListener('CookiebotOnDecline', () => flare.setConsent(false));

Put configure({ hasConsent: false }) first, right after the import, so the client is off. While this works, we do advice to use the recommended setup.

See the configuration reference for hasConsent, and the API reference for setConsent().