Your WordPress analytics cookies are not dying. They never were. Strictly necessary cookies—the ones that make your cart work, keep users logged in, and maintain security—are exempt from GDPR consent requirements entirely (Secure Privacy/Multiple DPAs, 2025). The panic about cookies killing your tracking? It’s about third-party cookies and cross-site surveillance, not the first-party cookies your WordPress site actually needs.

Here’s what the fear-mongering headlines miss: first-party analytics cookies are legal in every jurisdiction. They require consent in most EU countries, yes—but they’re not banned. Some countries like France, Germany, Netherlands, and Italy even offer exemptions for properly configured first-party analytics. The simple cookie survives all privacy regulations when you use it correctly.

The Cookie Panic Is Based on Confusion

When WordPress store owners hear “cookies are dying,” they imagine ripping out their entire analytics setup. But the regulations—GDPR, ePrivacy Directive, CCPA—were never designed to kill functional website tools. They target data misuse: cross-site tracking, building profiles without consent, selling user data to brokers.

The ePrivacy Regulation that was supposed to tighten cookie rules? It was formally withdrawn by the European Commission in February 2025. The current ePrivacy Directive from 2002 (amended 2009) remains in effect—and it explicitly exempts strictly necessary cookies from consent requirements.

What counts as strictly necessary? According to the GDPR.eu guidance and ePrivacy Directive:

• Shopping cart cookies: Store what’s in your WooCommerce cart
• Login session cookies: Keep users authenticated
• Security cookies: Prevent fraud and attacks
• Load balancing cookies: Distribute server traffic
• User preference cookies: Remember language or currency settings

These work without asking permission. No consent banner needed. No legal risk.

You may be interested in: First-Party Cookie Countdown 2026: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly for WordPress Store Owners

Analytics Cookies: Legal But Consent-Required

First-party analytics cookies sit in a different bucket. They’re not strictly necessary—your site works without them. So they require consent in most jurisdictions. But “requires consent” is not “banned.”

First-party analytics cookies can qualify for exemption in France, Germany, Netherlands, and Italy if they’re anonymized and not used for cross-site tracking (Iubenda/EU DPA guidance, 2025). The requirements:

• Set by your domain (first-party)
• Data anonymized or pseudonymized
• No sharing with third parties for tracking
• Used only for aggregate statistics

The UK ICO and Belgian/Irish DPAs take a stricter view—they require consent for analytics cookies regardless of first-party status. But even in those jurisdictions, the cookie technology itself isn’t banned. You just need proper consent.

“First-party analytics cookies do not create any privacy risk as much as third-party cookies do if they are limited to aggregated statistical analysis.” That’s directly from CookieYes’s compliance guidance—and it captures the regulatory intent perfectly.

What’s Actually Dying: Third-Party Cookies

The real cookie apocalypse is happening to third-party cookies—those set by external domains for cross-site tracking. Safari blocked them in 2017. Firefox followed. Chrome is finally deprecating them in 2024-2025.

Third-party cookies powered the surveillance economy: tracking users across websites, building behavioral profiles, enabling retargeting without consent. That’s what regulations targeted. That’s what browsers blocked.

First-party cookies set by your own domain (yourstore.com) work in every browser. They’re not under attack because they’re not the problem. A cookie that remembers a user’s cart on your site isn’t surveillance—it’s functionality.

The distinction matters:

• Third-party cookie: Set by adnetwork.com while user visits yourstore.com → Blocked
• First-party cookie: Set by yourstore.com while user visits yourstore.com → Works everywhere

The Real Compliance Requirements

Stop worrying about whether cookies are legal. Start implementing proper consent management. Here’s what you actually need:

For strictly necessary cookies: Nothing. They work without consent. Don’t even ask—it confuses users and implies they have a choice when they don’t.

For analytics cookies (most jurisdictions):

• Show a consent banner before setting cookies
• Get affirmative consent (not pre-checked boxes)
• Allow users to reject without penalty
• Provide easy withdrawal of consent
• Document consent for compliance records

For analytics cookies (France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy): You may qualify for exemption if your analytics are first-party, anonymized, and not shared for cross-site tracking. Check your specific DPA guidance.

GDPR fines can reach €20 million or 4% of global turnover for cookie consent violations (GDPR Article 83, 2025). But the fines target consent violations—not cookie usage itself. Get consent right, and your cookies are fully legal.

You may be interested in: Stop Apologizing for Cookies: How to Frame Consent as Value Exchange

Server-Side Tracking Maximizes Your Cookie Options

Here’s where first-party server architecture changes the game. When your tracking runs through a first-party server on your subdomain, your cookies have maximum legal protection and technical durability.

Transmute Engine™ is a dedicated Node.js server that runs first-party on your subdomain (e.g., data.yourstore.com). The inPIPE WordPress plugin captures events and sends them via API to your Transmute Engine server—where first-party cookies are set via HTTP headers rather than JavaScript. This approach:

• Qualifies as first-party in every jurisdiction
• Bypasses Safari’s 7-day JavaScript cookie limit
• Routes data through your infrastructure for GDPR compliance
• Works with proper consent management

Server-side doesn’t eliminate consent requirements—but it maximizes what you can legally do with first-party tracking.

Key Takeaways

• Strictly necessary cookies are exempt from GDPR/ePrivacy consent—cart, login, security cookies work without asking
• First-party analytics cookies are legal everywhere—they require consent in most EU countries but aren’t banned
• France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy offer exemptions for anonymized first-party analytics
• Third-party cookies are dying—first-party cookies set by your domain work in all browsers
• Server-side first-party tracking maximizes legal protection and technical durability

Your WordPress analytics don’t need an overhaul. They need proper consent management and first-party implementation. See how Transmute Engine implements first-party server-side tracking.