Terms Used in the Reports
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Authorized Third Parties | A third party identified by the customer as a party authorized to use tracking technologies on the customer's website. |
| Beacon | Web beacons (also known as a web bug, pixel tag, or clear gif) are clear graphic images of a 1-by-1 pixel delivered through a web browser to an end user's computer — usually as part of a web page request. The beacon operates as a tag that records a user's visit to a particular web page. It is also used in conjunction with a cookie and provided as part of a third-party tracking service. They are used to build specific profiles of user behavior. Common uses include ad impression counting, file downloads, monitoring, and ad campaign management. |
| Cookies | Cookies are widely used on the Internet to enable someone other than the user to link a computing device to previous web actions by the same device. The standard cookie is a small text file that a web server places on the hard drive of a user's computer. Cookies enable a range of functions, including the authentication of web visitors, personalization of content, and delivery of targeted advertising. |
| ETag | An ETag is an HTTP header sent behind the scenes between a web browser and a web server. ETags can be used to track unique users, as privacy-aware users increasingly delete HTTP cookies. |
| First-Party | A first party is a website that is scanned. |
| JS | JavaScript is a scripting language used to produce more interactive and dynamic websites. JavaScript can create cookies, read cookies, and delete cookies. |
| Local Storage | Also referred to as HTML5 storage or web storage, local storage is a way for web pages to store named key/value pairs locally within the client web browser. This data persists even after you navigate away from the website, close your browser tab, or exit your browser, and can be retrieved by the storing entity. |
| Privacy Sensitivity Index (PSI) |
TrustArc's Privacy Sensitivity Index (PSI) is a tool intended to help customers manage which third parties are authorized to be on their site. The PSI is a TrustArc assessment of third parties based on several factors including: likelihood to engage in online behavioral advertising (OBA), industry oversight, privacy policies, consent mechanisms, and honoring consumers' preferences. A high PSI does not necessarily mean a third party is "bad" and must be removed — it is an indication that the party could pose a higher risk to your site and that you should ensure they are authorized to be there. Once authorized by you, a PSI score is no longer relevant for that third party. TrustArc's PSI assessment includes:
|
| Standard Deployment | A Standard deployment is where the Consent Manager initiates any available Third-Party Opt-Outs upon the consent selection of the end-user. |
| Third-Party | A Third Party is an entity other than the website being scanned. |
| Zero-Tracker Deployment | A Zero-Tracker deployment is where Consent Manager is integrated with either a Tag Management System (such as Google Tag Manager or Adobe Launch) or the Consent API so that non-essential tags are not immediately fired on the first page load if the end-user is in the EU and has not yet consented to some or all non-essential trackers. |
Tracker Categories
This table outlines the full inventory of vendor and tracker domain categories recognized within the TrustArc Data Team's standard classification framework, along with each category's default consent category mapping and the rationale behind it. Each entry describes what the category represents, identifies whether its trackers default to Advertising Cookies or Functional Cookies under the Standard Default Bucketing model, and explains the privacy and operational reasoning that justifies that classification. These defaults are designed to serve as a consistent, compliance-aligned baseline across client engagements — ensuring that advertising-oriented vendors require explicit user consent by default, while operational and site-functional vendors are treated with proportionate handling. Individual client configurations may reassign certain categories based on their specific consent framework setup.
| Name | Description | Default Consent Category & Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Ad Agency | A service-based business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and other forms of promotion for its clients. |
[Advertising Cookies] Ad agencies exist solely to plan and execute paid advertising campaigns on behalf of clients. Their trackers are used to deliver, target, and measure ads. |
| Ad Exchange | Technology platforms that facilitate the bidded buying and selling of online media advertising inventory from multiple ad networks. |
[Advertising Cookies] Ad exchanges are real-time bidding infrastructure. Their scripts facilitate the buying and selling of ad impressions using user data, which is a core advertising function. |
| Ad Network | Connects advertisers to websites that want to host advertisements. The key function is aggregation of ad space supply from publishers and matching it with advertiser demand. |
[Advertising Cookies] Ad networks broker targeted ad delivery across publisher sites. Their cookies enable audience targeting and ad performance tracking. |
| Ad Platform | The technology that disseminates online ads and tracks and reports back on ad performance. Also known as Ad Servers. |
[Advertising Cookies] Ad platforms are purpose-built to serve, track, and optimize paid advertising. Their scripts process user data for commercial advertising purposes. |
| Ad Server | A web server that stores advertisements used in online marketing and delivers them to digital support visitors — a website, mobile apps, a mobile site, etc. |
[Advertising Cookies] Ad servers are the delivery mechanism for online advertising. They use cookies to serve targeted ads and track impressions and clicks. |
| Attribution / Analytics | An organization that focuses on the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of content and advertising consumption data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing content and media. |
[Functional Cookies] While attribution vendors measure ad performance, their primary function is reporting and analysis rather than direct ad targeting. Clients who add a dedicated Analytics Cookies category may have this reassigned. |
| Data Management Platform (DMP) | A centralized data management platform that allows organizations to create target audiences based on first-party and third-party data; target campaigns across ad networks and exchanges; and measure campaign performance across segments and channels. |
[Advertising Cookies] DMPs are specifically designed to build and activate audience segments for advertising targeting. Their core purpose is enabling personalized ad delivery across networks. |
| Data Provider / Aggregator | An organization involved in sourcing and aggregating information from ad-serving data, conversion data, and other third-party on- and offline databases and making this data available for sale to others. |
[Advertising Cookies] Data providers aggregate and sell audience and behavioral data used primarily for ad targeting and audience enrichment. Their trackers support commercial advertising ecosystems. |
| Demand Side Platform (DSP) | A system that allows digital advertisers to manage multiple ad exchange and data exchange accounts through one interface, including support for real-time bidding (RTB) to evaluate and bid on available ad impressions in real-time. |
[Advertising Cookies] DSPs are purpose-built for programmatic ad buying and real-time bidding. Their scripts process user data to evaluate and bid on ad impressions. |
| Market Research / Consumer Survey | A company that gathers market or consumer needs and preferences. |
[Functional Cookies] Market research tools collect opinion and preference data to improve products or content rather than to serve targeted advertising. Their function is analytical and operational in nature. |
| Publisher Related | Technology platforms that enable publishers to manage their ad impression inventory and maximize revenue from digital media. |
[Functional Cookies] Publisher tools support site operations such as ad inventory management and content delivery. Their core role is enabling site functionality and publisher-side operational management. |
| Retargeting / Optimization | Online-targeted advertising delivered to consumers based on previous Internet actions. |
[Advertising Cookies] Retargeting is by definition an advertising practice. It uses browsing history and behavioral data to re-engage users with personalized ads. |
| Sell Side Platform (SSP) | A technology platform that enables web publishers to manage their advertising space inventory, fill it with ads, and receive revenue. |
[Advertising Cookies] SSPs operate on the supply side of programmatic advertising, connecting publisher inventory to demand-side buyers. Their trackers enable ad matching and revenue attribution. |
| Service Provider | An entity whose services are used by another entity to perform a needed business process or function. |
[Functional Cookies] Service providers support the operational and business process functions of a site. Their trackers typically enable site functionality rather than advertising. |
| Social / Sharing Tools | Platform or site that focuses on building and reflecting social networks or social relations among people who share interests and/or activities. |
[Advertising Cookies] Social sharing tools commonly include embedded pixels and widgets (e.g., Like buttons, share overlays) that track user behavior across sites and feed into social advertising ecosystems. |
| Tag Management | A tag management system is designed to help manage the lifecycle of e-marketing tags, which are used to integrate third-party software into digital properties. |
[Functional Cookies] Tag management systems are operational tools for deploying and managing other scripts on a site. They enable site management and analytics workflows without performing advertising or targeting. |
| Unavailable | Category information is unavailable for this vendor. |
[Advertising Cookies] When a vendor's category cannot be determined, the conservative default is Advertising Cookies. This ensures compliance by requiring explicit user consent before unknown third-party scripts can process user data. |
| Unknown | Unknown |
[Advertising Cookies] Unclassified vendors are treated as potentially advertising-related under the standard default. Requiring Advertising Cookies consent is a precautionary measure to protect user privacy until the vendor can be properly identified and categorized. |
| Verification / Privacy | Organizations that verify privacy or advertising practices of websites, advertisers, and solution providers. |
[Functional Cookies] Verification and privacy vendors audit compliance, validate ad safety, and ensure sites meet regulatory and industry standards. Their role is operational and governance-oriented rather than advertising. |
| Website Tools | Website tools allow web developers to test and debug code with third-party functionality. They are often used for testing or developing websites or web applications (e.g., Google Fonts). |
[Functional Cookies] Website tools support site development, performance, and user experience functions such as fonts, testing libraries, and debugging utilities. These tools serve core site operations with no advertising purpose. |
TrustArc · Consent Manager — Appendix: Glossary & Tracker Categories · www.trustarc.com