Google Consent Mode V2 has been launched to align websites with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and new privacy laws, such as General Data Protection (GDPR), set by the EU. This means ‘V2’ is a legal imperative, as well as a strategic choice for website owners who want to prioritise privacy, gain valuable data insights and optimise digital advertising strategies.
However, due to this change, embedded videos from third party sources (such as YouTube, Vimeo Facebook and Dailymotion), no longer automatically play. Instead, visitors now have to accept cookies first. If the visitor does not accept cookies, a message will appear in place of the video stating ‘Cookies must be accepted to view this content’.
If you want your website videos to automatically play, regardless of whether cookies have been accepted, you need to replace your current embedded video with a ‘privacy mode’ version.
Here are the steps to do this:
Get the ‘privacy mode’ video embed code for the respective platform the video is on. You can normally find out how to do this in the site’s Help section. Then, replace the video code that’s currently on your website.
For YouTube, you can simply change the domain of the embedded URL within your HTML from https://www.youtube.com to https://www.youtube-nocookie.com.
Example:
Before
<iframe width="1440" height="762" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7cjVj1ZyzyE" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
After
<iframe width="1440" height="762" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/7cjVj1ZyzyE" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This adjustment means the video will not store any tracking data about your visitors and is therefore GDPR compliant – regardless of whether cookies have been accepted or not.
Alternatively, you can host the video directly on your website rather than a third-party platform, which will avoid cookie issues.
If you need any assistance in replacing your videos, please don’t hesitate to reach out and contact us.
