43% of Leading US Websites Fail Core Privacy Tests, New DataTrue Research Finds

The Consent Gap, DataTrue's US Website Tracking Benchmark 2026, tested 242 of the most visited US websites in retail, healthcare, banking, higher education and media. On 20 of 24 sites where a visitor clicked a clear reject button, ad tracking kept going.

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--More than 4 in 10 of the most visited US websites load ad tracking, give visitors no obvious way to opt out, and do not fully honor the browser's Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, according to The Consent Gap, new research released today by DataTrue.

DataTrue loaded each site three ways in October 2026: with no choice made, with GPC switched on, and after clicking the site's own reject button where there was one. Sites scored as lacking an obvious opt-out were verified by hand.

Key findings:

• 43% of sites (104 of 242) failed the core privacy tests outright.
• 80% of sites with ad tracking (139 of 173) offered no obvious way to opt out.
• 76% of sites with ad tracking did not fully honor GPC, the browser signal California law treats as an alternative to a homepage opt-out link.
• On 20 of 24 sites where a visitor could click a clear reject button, ad companies were still contacted.

“On most of the sites we tested, clicking ‘reject’ didn't actually stop the site from sending data about your visit to ad companies,” said Sayf Sharif, EVP Commercial at DataTrue. “That should be a wake-up call. Simply having a consent banner isn't enough. Knowing that your tags actually listen to it is the part most companies are missing.”

“Privacy, legal and marketing teams are being asked to stand behind what their websites do, often without a clear view,” said Robin Jowett, Co-Founder and CEO of DataTrue. “This research puts numbers on the gaps across five of the largest US industries. Teams can use it as a benchmark to see how their own sites compare.”

The full report and methodology are at datatrue.com/en/research/the-consent-gap-2026.

About DataTrue

DataTrue is a tag testing and monitoring platform for websites and mobile apps. It tests live sites in real browser sessions, sitewide and through key journeys, in every consent state, confirming that the right tags fire and catching the ones that shouldn't.