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Analytics & Reporting

Analytics & Reporting Team Management

Cookie Discovery

How the Cookiewise scanner detects and inventories cookies on your website.

How Scanning Works

Cookiewise uses a headless Chromium browser (Puppeteer) to visit your website exactly as a real user would. During the scan, it:

  1. Loads your homepage and captures all cookies set on page load
  2. Crawls internal links - up to 10 pages per scan - to discover cookies set on subpages
  3. Intercepts HTTP responses to capture Set-Cookie headers from servers
  4. Monitors JavaScript to detect cookies set via document.cookie
  5. Identifies third-party domains - any cookie not from your root domain is flagged as third-party

Starting a Scan

  1. Navigate to Cookie Scanner
  2. Select the website to scan
  3. Choose the number of pages to scan (1-10)
  4. Click Start Scan

Scans typically complete in 30-90 seconds depending on page count and site complexity.

What Gets Detected

First-Party Cookies

Cookies set by your domain - session IDs, preferences, authentication tokens, shopping carts.

Third-Party Cookies

Cookies from external services - Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, ad networks, embedded widgets.

HTTP Cookies

Set via server response headers. Often used for authentication and server-side tracking.

JavaScript Cookies

Set via client-side JavaScript. Common for analytics, A/B testing, and personalization.

Cookie Details Captured

For each cookie discovered, the scanner records:

  • Name - The cookie identifier
  • Domain - Which domain set it
  • Path - The URL path scope
  • Expiration - Session or persistent (with exact expiry date)
  • Secure flag - Whether it requires HTTPS
  • HttpOnly flag - Whether JavaScript can access it
  • SameSite attribute - Cross-site behaviour (Strict, Lax, None)
  • Category - Auto-assigned based on our categorization engine

Re-scanning

Your website changes over time - new plugins, updated tracking codes, new third-party integrations. We recommend:

  • Monthly scans for actively developed sites
  • After every deployment if you add new tracking or analytics tools
  • Quarterly at minimum for stable sites

Each new scan updates your cookie inventory. Cookies that no longer appear are marked inactive, while new cookies are flagged for review.

Domain Configuration Cookie Categories