What Is Global Privacy Control?

Global Privacy Control (GPC) is a browser-level signal that automatically communicates a user's opt-out preference to every website they visit, without requiring them to click through each site's individual consent banner. In California and several other states, honoring a GPC signal is a legal requirement, not an optional courtesy.

GPC solves consent fatigue: a user sets the preference once in their browser, and every site is supposed to detect and respect it automatically. The compliance risk is that GPC support has to be actively built into a site’s CMP and tag configuration; it isn’t automatic just because a CMP is present. A site can have a fully functioning cookie banner and still fail to honor GPC, which is one of the specific things Consent Simulation tests for.