Most enterprise MarTech teams assume that if they’ve implemented a Consent Management Platform (CMP) and configured their Tag Management System (TMS), they’ve solved the consent problem. But what they don’t realize is that CMPs collect preferences, and TMSs attempt to enforce logic, but neither confirms whether the consent preference was actually honored.
That’s where Sentinel Insights comes in.
Understanding the Stack
To see how the CMP and TMS work together with Sentinel Insights, consider their roles:
- CMPs, like OneTrust or TrustArc, collect and store user consent preferences. They present the banner, track selections, and pass consent signals to your TMS.
- TMSs, such as Google Tag Manager, Adobe Launch, or Tealium IQ, are configured to enforce those preferences by controlling whether tags are suppressed or allowed to fire based on the user’s choices.
- Sentinel Insights monitors what happens next. We verify, across every page load, every user, and every tag, whether the tags on your site behaved in line with each individual user’s consent preferences or not.
This is critical, because the moment a tag violates consent, it becomes a liability.
Why Monitoring Matters
Most companies don’t realize when they’re violating user consent – until a lawsuit or regulatory investigation makes it clear.
Recent research shows that:
- 76% of top U.S. websites still share data with third parties after users opt out, which is out of alignment with the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). (Source)
- Many consent banners fail to meet minimal compliance standards, often failing to provide a clear reject option. (Check out this guide to a better cookie banner)
- Even in regulated environments, 74% of major sites fail to meet GDPR opt-in requirements. (Source)
Consent violations happen every day, even on well-governed websites. It’s often not due to negligence. It’s the result of a chaotic MarTech stack, dynamic site behavior, third-party changes, or just a lack of visibility.
What Sentinel Insights Does
When you implement Sentinel Insights, we provide a tag that runs alongside your marketing and analytics tags, typically through your TMS. Once deployed, it monitors real user traffic in real time, providing oversight that neither your CMP nor your TMS can offer.
Because Sentinel observes tags at runtime, it can detect exactly when and under what conditions each tracking technology fires, even if the tag is miscategorized, piggybacked, or manually hardcoded to the page.
The platform then compares each event against the specific consent preferences of that user. If a situation arises where a tag fires without consent or after consent is revoked, Sentinel immediately alerts you to the issue. You get live, independent visibility, and a detailed record that helps you act quickly and prove due diligence when needed.
We Don’t Replace the CMP or TMS – We Confirm They’re Working
CMPs are still essential. So are TMSs. But without independent monitoring, they’re blind spots. Sentinel gives legal and privacy teams the one thing they’ve never had before: confirmation that consent enforcement is functioning the way it’s supposed to for 100% of the real users on your website.
In a regulatory environment where lawsuits can arrive without warning, and violations can cost thousands per user, that kind of evidence is the difference between exposure and control.
Even a well-configured stack is vulnerable to unexpected misfires. Sentinel Insights flags them in real time… before they become liabilities.
