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Realtime Cookie Scanner

1. Introduction

The Realtime Cookie Scanner (RCS) is Commanders Act’s next-generation module for continuous, intelligent, and real-world monitoring of cookies and client-side storage (cookies, localStorage, sessionStorage, etc.).

Unlike crawler-based scanners that simulate visits with bots, the RCS observes you real user sessions — across all countries, devices, browsers, and contexts — providing a complete, live picture of what actually happens in your users’ browsers.

Whether a cookie appears only for specific users, browsers, countries, forgotten landing pages, or A/B test variants, RCS detects it. No missed edge cases, no blind spots, no delayed snapshots.


2. Typical Use Cases

RCS provides Privacy, Marketing, and Technical teams with instant, exhaustive, and actionable visibility over every cookie and storage item.

Common use cases include:

  • Continuous CNIL / GDPR compliance monitoring Detect any cookie deposited before consent and stay compliant in real time.

  • Instant audit after container or tag deployment Ensure new releases haven’t introduced unauthorized cookies.

  • Proactive detection of new or undeclared partners Identify scripts depositing unexpected cookies.

  • Automatic multilingual cookie policy publication Generate and publish an auto-translated cookie table that stays up to date.

  • Post-release monitoring during redesigns or migrations Detect regressions or compliance issues immediately.


3. Key Features

🔍 100 % Real-World Detection

  • Observes every real user session — no crawlers, no simulations.

  • Detects cookies triggered by clicks, scrolls, mobile interactions, or dynamic tags.

  • Lists all URLs where each cookie was found.

  • Groups variants of the same cookie (dynamic names or hashed suffixes).

  • Displays detection frequency (e.g. 0.2 % rare / 32 % common).

  • Frequency filter lets you show or hide rare cookies.

  • Covers all countries and devices at no extra cost.

🧠 Knowledge Base & AI Classification

  • Powered by a large cookie database enriched through Commanders Act’s browser extensions (Chrome & Edge), leveraging anonymized data from thousands of users.

  • Auto-detects vendor, purpose, and category.

  • Uses AI to find rare cookies description/category, with human validation.

  • Automatically ranks cookies by risk and frequency.

🤖 AI information

RCS uses Commanders Act AI capabilities for cookie classification and multilingual content generation.

For more information about Commanders Act AI usage, security, and compliance, see:

Commander's AIchevron-right

⚙️ Supported Storage Types

1st Party Cookies, 3rd Party Cookies, HttpOnly 1st Party Cookies, HttpOnly 3rd Party Cookies, localStorage, sessionStorage

Cookie Type
Description
Scanned with

1st Party Cookie

1st party cookies are cookies that are stored on the domain of the website.

  • Tag client-side

  • Chrome Extension

3rd Party Cookie

3rd party cookies are cookies that are stored on a 3rd party domain.

  • Chrome Extension

  • Cookie Database

HttpOnly 1st Party Cookie

HttpOnly 1st Party Cookie are server cookies that are stored on the domain of the website and that have a HttpOnly flag.

  • Tag client-side

  • Chrome Extension

HttpOnly 3rd Party Cookie

HttpOnly 3rd Party Cookie are server cookies that are stored on a 3rd party domain and that have a HttpOnly flag.

  • Chrome Extension

  • Cookie Database

Local Storage

localStorage is a JavaScript accessible browser storage.

  • Tag client-side

  • Chrome Extension

Session Storage

sessionStorage is a JavaScript accessible session based browser storage.

  • Tag client-side

  • Chrome Extension

🔔 Realtime Alerts (< 60 s)

  • Instant notifications for new cookies.

  • Configurable by severity.

  • Integrations : Email, Slack, Teams (and soon webhook).

  • Email Recipients: Platform users or external recipients (email addresses not registered in Commanders Act)

  • AI-translated, continuously updated table.

  • Export in HTML, JSON, CSV, XLSX.

  • Integrates with any website or CMP / TMS.

🌐 Translation Tokens System

RCS includes a translation token system for multilingual cookie notices.

  • Your plan includes a daily allowance of translation tokens (e.g. 200 tokens per day)

  • 1 translated field consumes 1 token

📊 Live Dashboards

  • Always up-to-date (real & realtime data, not batches).

  • Breakdowns by vendor, category, domain, frequency, or status.

  • Filters by domain, consent state, frequency, etc.

🕒 Versioning, History & Auditability

RCS provides full versioning capabilities to support compliance audits and historical proof.

Cookie notice version snapshots

Each time a cookie notice version is created in the Cookie Notice Manager:

  • A complete snapshot of all cookies is saved

  • This snapshot represents the exact state of detected cookies at that moment

  • Snapshots are immutable and preserved over time

Historical access

Users can:

  • view previous versions at any time

  • export historical cookie lists

  • demonstrate compliance at a specific point in time

Supported export formats

  • CSV

  • XLSX

  • JSON

  • HTML

Compliance and audit use cases

This enables organizations to:

  • prove compliance over a specific period (for example: demonstrate compliance over the last 6 months)

  • respond to regulatory audits (CNIL, GDPR, internal compliance teams)

  • track compliance evolution over time

  • maintain full documentation history

Version history is available in:

Cookie Notice Manager > Deploy tab


4. Setup and Configuration

Implementation is instant.

1-Your Commanders Act consultant or support simply activates RCS in the Backoffice. Once enabled, your Web Container injects the JS scanner and starts data collection.

No scenarios to script, no login management, no maintenance.

RCS works immediately on real traffic — including logged-in or restricted pages.

💡 Compatibility : RCS is independent of the Commanders Act CMP or TMS and can be used with any CMP vendors or TMS vendors (GTM, etc.)

2-Declare the domains that you need to be scanned with the Cookie Scanner Data Governance > Consent Management > Settings > Cookie Scanner Domains

3-Declare the languages required in your cookie notice Data Governance > Consent Management > Settings > Localisation

4-Regenerate and Deploy your privacy banner(s) and/or your Web Containers\


5. Interfaces & Roadmap

Interface
Description
Status

Overview

Global summary of detected cookies and compliance status across domains.

🧩 In development

New Cookies

Recently detected cookies with classification and alert options.

🧩 In development

Live Scan

Real-time feed of detections with domain and device filters.

🧩 In roadmap

Cookie Origins

Trace pages, domains, and scripts that set each cookie.

🧩 In roadmap

Breakdown by functional, analytics, ads, security.

Available

Compliance Summary

Overview of non-compliant cookies and risk levels.

🧩 In development

Manage, version, and publish the cookie table.

Available


6. User Rights

User Right
Description

View Cookie List

View the full list of detected cookies.

Manage Cookie List

Edit cookies, add custom entries, and adjust fields.

Generate Cookie Notice

Create a new cookie notice version.

Deploy Cookie Notice

Publish or roll back notice versions.

Manage Settings

Configure custom fields, filters, and frequency thresholds.


7. AI Act compliancy

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