Your WooCommerce cart cookie isn’t the privacy villain—it’s the reason customers can actually buy from you. Strictly necessary cookies are exempt from GDPR consent requirements under Article 6 (GDPR.eu), meaning your cart, session, and login cookies don’t need banner approval. The WooCommerce cart hash cookie expires at session end, while items_in_cart and session cookies persist for 2 days (CookieYes, 2024). The cookies causing privacy concerns? Third-party advertising trackers—not your shopping cart.

Separating Essential Cookies From Tracking Cookies#

Store owners often disable cookies broadly and break their own sites in the process. WooCommerce requires session cookies for cart function. Login requires persistent cookies. But analytics is different from advertising, and the law treats them differently too.

Here’s the breakdown that actually matters: essential cookies keep your store running, tracking cookies follow your customers across the internet.

The ePrivacy Directive covers device storage while GDPR covers personal data processing (Iubenda). Both may apply depending on what the cookie actually does—but “strictly necessary” cookies get a legal exemption either way.

What WooCommerce Actually Needs to Function#

WooCommerce sets several cookies by default, and your store breaks without them:

• woocommerce_cart_hash: Tracks cart contents. Expires at session end.
• woocommerce_items_in_cart: Indicates items exist in cart. Lasts 2 days.
• wp_woocommerce_session: Maintains session state. Persists for 2 days.
• wordpress_logged_in: Enables user login. Required for account pages.
• CSRF tokens: Security cookies that prevent form hijacking.

These cookies cannot be switched off without breaking checkout entirely. A customer who rejects “all cookies” on a poorly configured banner may find they can’t complete a purchase—not because of privacy, but because the cart literally stops working.

You may be interested in: Server-Side Tracking Still Needs Consent: What WordPress Store Owners Must Know

The Four Cookie Categories You Need to Understand#

Not all cookies are created equal, and the law recognizes this:

1. Strictly Necessary (Always Allowed)

Cart cookies, session management, login authentication, CSRF protection. “Strictly necessary cookies are exempt from consent requirements because they are essential for the website to function” (GDPR.eu). You don’t need to ask permission—these are legally exempt.

2. Preference Cookies (Generally Fine)

Language selection, theme preferences, display settings. These remember user choices that improve experience. Most consent frameworks allow these with minimal friction, though technically they require consent in strict interpretations.

3. Analytics Cookies (Require Consent)

GA4 tracking, behavior analysis, conversion tracking. Analytics cookies require consent in the UK regardless of anonymization (UK ICO guidance). This is where first-party server-side tracking becomes valuable—you’re still collecting analytics, but through your own domain rather than third-party scripts.

4. Advertising Cookies (The Actual Problem)

Retargeting pixels, cross-site tracking, third-party ad networks. These follow users across websites, building profiles for targeted ads. This is what people hate about cookies—not your shopping cart, but being followed across the internet.

You may be interested in: People Don’t Hate Cookies—They Hate Being Followed

Why Store Owners Get This Wrong#

The confusion comes from treating “cookies” as a monolithic category. News stories about privacy focus on surveillance advertising—Facebook pixels tracking you from site to site, ad networks building shadow profiles. That’s legitimate concern.

But store owners hear “cookies bad” and configure consent banners that block everything, including the cart functionality their business depends on. A customer who can’t add items to cart isn’t a privacy win—it’s a broken store.

31.5% of global users run ad blockers (Statista, 2024), and they’re blocking advertising trackers, not shopping cart functionality. The tools exist because of surveillance advertising, not because someone wanted to stop WooCommerce from remembering their cart contents.

First-Party vs. Third-Party: The Real Distinction#

First-party cookies are set by your domain—yourstore.com sets cookies for yourstore.com visitors. These handle cart, login, and your own analytics.

Third-party cookies are set by external domains—ad networks, social pixels, retargeting services. These enable cross-site tracking that follows users from your store to news sites to social media.

Browsers increasingly restrict third-party cookies. Safari’s ITP limits them to 7 days. Chrome is deprecating them entirely. But first-party cookies face far fewer restrictions because they’re scoped to your site.

This is exactly why first-party data collection matters. When your analytics run through your own domain rather than third-party scripts, you’re operating in the same category as your cart cookies—first-party, site-specific, and harder to block.

How to Configure Consent Correctly#

Your consent banner should categorize cookies accurately:

• Essential/Strictly Necessary: Pre-selected, cannot be rejected. Includes cart, session, security.
• Analytics: Requires opt-in. GA4 and similar tracking.
• Marketing: Requires opt-in. Advertising pixels and retargeting.

Never lump cart cookies into a “reject all” option. WooCommerce stores require cookie consent for analytics and marketing cookies but NOT for essential cart/session cookies (WPConsent). Configure your consent management platform accordingly.

The Server-Side Solution#

Analytics cookies require consent, but that doesn’t mean you lose the data. First-party server-side tracking collects analytics through your domain—operating in the first-party context that faces fewer restrictions.

Transmute Engine™ runs as a first-party Node.js server on your subdomain (data.yourstore.com). The inPIPE WordPress plugin captures events and routes them through your infrastructure, not third-party scripts. You’re still doing analytics—just in a way that aligns with how essential cookies work: first-party, site-specific, and transparent.

Key Takeaways#

• Cart cookies are legally exempt from GDPR consent under Article 6—don’t let banners block them
• WooCommerce session cookies last 2 days and are required for checkout to function
• Analytics require consent but first-party server-side collection faces fewer restrictions
• Third-party advertising cookies cause the privacy concerns—not your shopping cart
• Configure consent correctly: essential cookies pre-selected, analytics/marketing require opt-in

Ready to collect analytics the first-party way? Learn how Transmute Engine works →