GDPR: Track Consent with Custom UI

In this tutorial we will see how you can use auth0.js or the Auth0 APIs to ask for consent information and save the input at the user's metadata. To learn more, read Understand How Metadata Works in User Profiles.

The contents of this document are not intended to be legal advice, nor should they be considered a substitute for legal assistance. The final responsibility for understanding and complying with GDPR resides with you, though Auth0 will assist you in meeting GDPR requirements where possible.

The contents of these documents are not intended to be legal advice, nor should they be considered a substitute for legal assistance. The final responsibility for understanding and complying with GDPR resides with you, though Auth0 will assist you in meeting GDPR requirements where possible.

Overview

We will capture consent information, under various scenarios, and save this in the user's metadata.

All scenarios will save the following properties in the user's metadata:

consentGiven (true/false) shows if the user has provided consent (true) or not (false)
consentTimestamp (Unix timestamp) indicates when the user-provided consent

For example:

{
  "consentGiven": "true"
  "consentTimestamp": "1525101183"
}

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We will see four different implementations for this:

one that displays a flag, works for database connections, and uses the auth0.js library to create the user (used by Single-Page Applications). To learn more, read Auth0.js v9 Reference.
one that displays a flag, works for database connections, and uses the Authentication API to create the user (used by Regular Web Apps)
one that displays a flag, works for social connections, and uses the Management API to update the user's information (used either by SPAs or Regular Web Apps)
one that redirects to another page where the Terms & Conditions and/or privacy policy information can be reviewed and consent info can be provided (used either by SPAs or Regular Web Apps)

Option 1: Use auth0.js

In this section, we will use a simple Single-Page Application and customize the login widget to add a flag which users can use to provide consent information. Instead of building an app from scratch, we will use Auth0's JavaScript Quickstart sample. We will also use Auth0's Universal Login pages so we can implement a Universal Login experience, instead of embedding the login in our app. To learn more about Universal Login, read Auth0 Universal Login. To learn more about the differences between Universal Login and embedded login, read Centralized Universal Login vs. Embedded Login.

This works only for database connections (we will use Auth0's infrastructure, instead of setting up our own database).

Go to Auth0 Dashboard > Applications > Applications and create a new application. Choose Single Web Page Applications as type. Go to Settings and set the Allowed Callback URLs to http://localhost:3000.
This field holds the set of URLs to which Auth0 is allowed to redirect the users after they authenticate. Our sample app will run at http://localhost:3000 hence we set this value.
Copy the Client Id and Domain values. You will need them in a while.
Go to Auth0 Dashboard > Authentication > Database and create a new connection. Click Create DB Connection, set a name for the new connection, and click Save. Go to the connection's Applications tab and make sure your newly created application is enabled.
Download the JavaScript SPA Sample.
Set the Client ID and Domain values.
Go to Auth0 Dashboard > Branding > Universal Login. At the Login tab enable the toggle.
At the Default Templates dropdown make sure that Custom Login Form is picked. The code is pre-populated for you.
Set the value of the databaseConnection variable to the name of the database connection your app is using.
//code reducted for simplicity var databaseConnection = 'test-db'; //code reducted for simplicity
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/
To add a field for the consentGiven metadata, add a checkbox at the form. For our example, we will configure the checkbox as checked by default and disabled so the user cannot uncheck it. You can adjust this according to your business needs.
//code reducted for simplicity <div class="form-group"> <label for="name">I consent with data processing</label> <input type="checkbox" id="userConsent" checked disabled> </div> //code reducted for simplicity
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/

Edit the signup function to set the metadata. Note that we set the value of the metadata to a string with the value true and not to a boolean value, and we are using toString to convert the number to a string. This is due to a restriction of the Authentication API Signup endpoint which only accepts strings as values.

//code reducted for simplicity
    webAuth.redirect.signupAndLogin({
      connection: databaseConnection,
      email: email,
      password: password,
      user_metadata: { consentGiven: 'true', consentTimestamp: Date.now().toString() }
    }, function(err) {
      if (err) displayError(err);
    });
    //code reducted for simplicity

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To see what the login widget will look like, click the Preview tab.

Dashboard Branding Universal Login Classic Login Tab Custom Login Form

To test this configuration run the application and go to http://localhost:3000. Sign up with a new user. Then go to Auth0 Dashboard > User Management > Users and search for your new user. Go to User Details and scroll down to the Metadata section. At the user_metadata text area, you should see the consentGiven metadata set to true.

Option 2: Use the API (database)

If you serve your login page from your own server, then you can call the Authentication API Signup endpoint directly once the user signs up.

For the same scenario we have been discussing so far, once you sign up a new user, you can use the following snippet to create the user at Auth0 and set the metadata. Remember to replace the value of the consentTimestamp request parameter with the timestamp of when the user provided consent.

cURL
C#
Go
Java
Node.JS
Obj-C
...
- PHP
- Python
- Ruby
- Swift

curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://{yourDomain}/dbconnections/signup' \
  --header 'content-type: application/json' \
  --data '{"client_id": "{yourClientId}","email": "YOUR_USER_EMAIL","password": "YOUR_USER_PASSWORD","user_metadata": {"consentGiven": "true", "consentTimestamp": "1525101183" }}'

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var client = new RestClient("https://{yourDomain}/dbconnections/signup");
var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST);
request.AddHeader("content-type", "application/json");
request.AddParameter("application/json", "{\"client_id\": \"{yourClientId}\",\"email\": \"YOUR_USER_EMAIL\",\"password\": \"YOUR_USER_PASSWORD\",\"user_metadata\": {\"consentGiven\": \"true\", \"consentTimestamp\": \"1525101183\" }}", ParameterType.RequestBody);
IRestResponse response = client.Execute(request);

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package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"strings"
	"net/http"
	"io/ioutil"
)

func main() {

	url := "https://{yourDomain}/dbconnections/signup"

	payload := strings.NewReader("{\"client_id\": \"{yourClientId}\",\"email\": \"YOUR_USER_EMAIL\",\"password\": \"YOUR_USER_PASSWORD\",\"user_metadata\": {\"consentGiven\": \"true\", \"consentTimestamp\": \"1525101183\" }}")

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", url, payload)

	req.Header.Add("content-type", "application/json")

	res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, _ := ioutil.ReadAll(res.Body)

	fmt.Println(res)
	fmt.Println(string(body))

}

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HttpResponse<String> response = Unirest.post("https://{yourDomain}/dbconnections/signup")
  .header("content-type", "application/json")
  .body("{\"client_id\": \"{yourClientId}\",\"email\": \"YOUR_USER_EMAIL\",\"password\": \"YOUR_USER_PASSWORD\",\"user_metadata\": {\"consentGiven\": \"true\", \"consentTimestamp\": \"1525101183\" }}")
  .asString();

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var axios = require("axios").default;

var options = {
  method: 'POST',
  url: 'https://{yourDomain}/dbconnections/signup',
  headers: {'content-type': 'application/json'},
  data: {
    client_id: '{yourClientId}',
    email: 'YOUR_USER_EMAIL',
    password: 'YOUR_USER_PASSWORD',
    user_metadata: {consentGiven: 'true', consentTimestamp: '1525101183'}
  }
};

axios.request(options).then(function (response) {
  console.log(response.data);
}).catch(function (error) {
  console.error(error);
});

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#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

NSDictionary *headers = @{ @"content-type": @"application/json" };
NSDictionary *parameters = @{ @"client_id": @"{yourClientId}",
                              @"email": @"YOUR_USER_EMAIL",
                              @"password": @"YOUR_USER_PASSWORD",
                              @"user_metadata": @{ @"consentGiven": @"true", @"consentTimestamp": @"1525101183" } };

NSData *postData = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:parameters options:0 error:nil];

NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"https://{yourDomain}/dbconnections/signup"]
                                                       cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy
                                                   timeoutInterval:10.0];
[request setHTTPMethod:@"POST"];
[request setAllHTTPHeaderFields:headers];
[request setHTTPBody:postData];

NSURLSession *session = [NSURLSession sharedSession];
NSURLSessionDataTask *dataTask = [session dataTaskWithRequest:request
                                            completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
                                                if (error) {
                                                    NSLog(@"%@", error);
                                                } else {
                                                    NSHTTPURLResponse *httpResponse = (NSHTTPURLResponse *) response;
                                                    NSLog(@"%@", httpResponse);
                                                }
                                            }];
[dataTask resume];

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$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://{yourDomain}/dbconnections/signup",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "POST",
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => "{\"client_id\": \"{yourClientId}\",\"email\": \"YOUR_USER_EMAIL\",\"password\": \"YOUR_USER_PASSWORD\",\"user_metadata\": {\"consentGiven\": \"true\", \"consentTimestamp\": \"1525101183\" }}",
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    "content-type: application/json"
  ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
  echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

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import http.client

conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection("")

payload = "{\"client_id\": \"{yourClientId}\",\"email\": \"YOUR_USER_EMAIL\",\"password\": \"YOUR_USER_PASSWORD\",\"user_metadata\": {\"consentGiven\": \"true\", \"consentTimestamp\": \"1525101183\" }}"

headers = { 'content-type': "application/json" }

conn.request("POST", "/{yourDomain}/dbconnections/signup", payload, headers)

res = conn.getresponse()
data = res.read()

print(data.decode("utf-8"))

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require 'uri'
require 'net/http'
require 'openssl'

url = URI("https://{yourDomain}/dbconnections/signup")

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true
http.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE

request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url)
request["content-type"] = 'application/json'
request.body = "{\"client_id\": \"{yourClientId}\",\"email\": \"YOUR_USER_EMAIL\",\"password\": \"YOUR_USER_PASSWORD\",\"user_metadata\": {\"consentGiven\": \"true\", \"consentTimestamp\": \"1525101183\" }}"

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body

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import Foundation

let headers = ["content-type": "application/json"]
let parameters = [
  "client_id": "{yourClientId}",
  "email": "YOUR_USER_EMAIL",
  "password": "YOUR_USER_PASSWORD",
  "user_metadata": [
    "consentGiven": "true",
    "consentTimestamp": "1525101183"
  ]
] as [String : Any]

let postData = JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: parameters, options: [])

let request = NSMutableURLRequest(url: NSURL(string: "https://{yourDomain}/dbconnections/signup")! as URL,
                                        cachePolicy: .useProtocolCachePolicy,
                                    timeoutInterval: 10.0)
request.httpMethod = "POST"
request.allHTTPHeaderFields = headers
request.httpBody = postData as Data

let session = URLSession.shared
let dataTask = session.dataTask(with: request as URLRequest, completionHandler: { (data, response, error) -> Void in
  if (error != nil) {
    print(error)
  } else {
    let httpResponse = response as? HTTPURLResponse
    print(httpResponse)
  }
})

dataTask.resume()

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Note that we set the value of the metadata to a string with the value true and not to a boolean value due to the API restriction that accepts strings as values, not booleans.

If setting boolean values is a requirement for you, you can use the Management API instead. In this scenario you sign up your user as usual, and then you call the Management API Update User endpoint to set the required metadata after the user has been created. For details on how to do that keep reading, the next paragraph uses that endpoint.

If you use social connections, then you cannot use the Authentication API to create the user at Auth0, since that endpoint works only for database connections.

What you have to do instead is let your user sign up with the social provider (which will create a user record at Auth0) and then use the Management API to update the user's information.

Before you call the Management API you need to get a valid token. To learn more, read Get Management API Access Tokens for Production.

The linked article uses the Client Credentials Flow to get a token, which you cannot use from an app running on the browser. What you can use instead is the Implicit Flow. To learn more about the Client Credentials Flow, read Client Credentials Flow. To learn more about the Implicit Flow, read Implicit Flow.

Set the audience request parameter to https://YOUR_DOMAIN/api/v2/ and the scope parameter to the scope create:current_user_metadata. You can use the Access Token you will get at the response to call the Management API Update User endpoint.

Once you have a valid token, use the following snippet to update the user's metadata.

cURL
C#
Go
Java
Node.JS
Obj-C
...
- PHP
- Python
- Ruby
- Swift

curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://{yourDomain}/api/v2/users/%7BUSER_ID%7D' \
  --header 'authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN' \
  --header 'content-type: application/json' \
  --data '{"user_metadata": {"consentGiven":true, "consentTimestamp": "1525101183"}}'

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var client = new RestClient("https://{yourDomain}/api/v2/users/%7BUSER_ID%7D");
var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST);
request.AddHeader("authorization", "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN");
request.AddHeader("content-type", "application/json");
request.AddParameter("application/json", "{\"user_metadata\": {\"consentGiven\":true, \"consentTimestamp\": \"1525101183\"}}", ParameterType.RequestBody);
IRestResponse response = client.Execute(request);

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package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"strings"
	"net/http"
	"io/ioutil"
)

func main() {

	url := "https://{yourDomain}/api/v2/users/%7BUSER_ID%7D"

	payload := strings.NewReader("{\"user_metadata\": {\"consentGiven\":true, \"consentTimestamp\": \"1525101183\"}}")

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", url, payload)

	req.Header.Add("authorization", "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN")
	req.Header.Add("content-type", "application/json")

	res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, _ := ioutil.ReadAll(res.Body)

	fmt.Println(res)
	fmt.Println(string(body))

}

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HttpResponse<String> response = Unirest.post("https://{yourDomain}/api/v2/users/%7BUSER_ID%7D")
  .header("authorization", "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN")
  .header("content-type", "application/json")
  .body("{\"user_metadata\": {\"consentGiven\":true, \"consentTimestamp\": \"1525101183\"}}")
  .asString();

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var axios = require("axios").default;

var options = {
  method: 'POST',
  url: 'https://{yourDomain}/api/v2/users/%7BUSER_ID%7D',
  headers: {authorization: 'Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN', 'content-type': 'application/json'},
  data: {user_metadata: {consentGiven: true, consentTimestamp: '1525101183'}}
};

axios.request(options).then(function (response) {
  console.log(response.data);
}).catch(function (error) {
  console.error(error);
});

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#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

NSDictionary *headers = @{ @"authorization": @"Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN",
                           @"content-type": @"application/json" };
NSDictionary *parameters = @{ @"user_metadata": @{ @"consentGiven": @YES, @"consentTimestamp": @"1525101183" } };

NSData *postData = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:parameters options:0 error:nil];

NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"https://{yourDomain}/api/v2/users/%7BUSER_ID%7D"]
                                                       cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy
                                                   timeoutInterval:10.0];
[request setHTTPMethod:@"POST"];
[request setAllHTTPHeaderFields:headers];
[request setHTTPBody:postData];

NSURLSession *session = [NSURLSession sharedSession];
NSURLSessionDataTask *dataTask = [session dataTaskWithRequest:request
                                            completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
                                                if (error) {
                                                    NSLog(@"%@", error);
                                                } else {
                                                    NSHTTPURLResponse *httpResponse = (NSHTTPURLResponse *) response;
                                                    NSLog(@"%@", httpResponse);
                                                }
                                            }];
[dataTask resume];

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$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://{yourDomain}/api/v2/users/%7BUSER_ID%7D",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "POST",
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => "{\"user_metadata\": {\"consentGiven\":true, \"consentTimestamp\": \"1525101183\"}}",
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    "authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN",
    "content-type: application/json"
  ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
  echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

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import http.client

conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection("")

payload = "{\"user_metadata\": {\"consentGiven\":true, \"consentTimestamp\": \"1525101183\"}}"

headers = {
    'authorization': "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN",
    'content-type': "application/json"
    }

conn.request("POST", "/{yourDomain}/api/v2/users/%7BUSER_ID%7D", payload, headers)

res = conn.getresponse()
data = res.read()

print(data.decode("utf-8"))

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require 'uri'
require 'net/http'
require 'openssl'

url = URI("https://{yourDomain}/api/v2/users/%7BUSER_ID%7D")

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true
http.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE

request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url)
request["authorization"] = 'Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN'
request["content-type"] = 'application/json'
request.body = "{\"user_metadata\": {\"consentGiven\":true, \"consentTimestamp\": \"1525101183\"}}"

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body

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import Foundation

let headers = [
  "authorization": "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN",
  "content-type": "application/json"
]
let parameters = ["user_metadata": [
    "consentGiven": true,
    "consentTimestamp": "1525101183"
  ]] as [String : Any]

let postData = JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: parameters, options: [])

let request = NSMutableURLRequest(url: NSURL(string: "https://{yourDomain}/api/v2/users/%7BUSER_ID%7D")! as URL,
                                        cachePolicy: .useProtocolCachePolicy,
                                    timeoutInterval: 10.0)
request.httpMethod = "POST"
request.allHTTPHeaderFields = headers
request.httpBody = postData as Data

let session = URLSession.shared
let dataTask = session.dataTask(with: request as URLRequest, completionHandler: { (data, response, error) -> Void in
  if (error != nil) {
    print(error)
  } else {
    let httpResponse = response as? HTTPURLResponse
    print(httpResponse)
  }
})

dataTask.resume()

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Note that in order to make this call you need to know the unique user_id. You can retrieve this from the sub claim of the ID Token, if you got one from the response. To learn more, read ID Tokens. Alternatively, if all you have is the email, you can retrieve the Id by calling another endpoint of the Management API. To learn more, read User Search Best Practices.

Option 4: Redirect to another page

If you want to display more information to your user, then upon signup you can redirect to another page where you ask for consent and any additional info, and then redirect back to finish the authentication transaction. This can be done with redirect rules. That same rule can be used to save the consent information at the user's metadata so you can track this information and not ask for consent upon next login. To learn more, read Redirect Users from Within Rules.

You will need to host this form, and the URL for the form must be publicly-accessible. You'll need to provide the URL where the form can be accessed to Auth0 at a later step of this tutorial.

Add the redirect rule. Go to Auth0 Dashboard > Auth Pipeline > Rules, and click Create Rule. At Rules Templates, select empty rule. Change the default rule's name from empty rule to something descriptive (e.g., Redirect to consent form).

Add the following JavaScript code to the script editor, and Save your changes.

exports.onExecutePostLogin = async (event, api) => {
    const { consentGiven } = event.user.user_metadata || {};

    // redirect to consent form if user has not yet consented
    if (!consentGiven && api.redirect.canRedirect()) {
      const options = {
        query: {
          auth0_domain: `${event.tenant.id}.auth0.com`,
        },
      };
      api.redirect.sendUserTo(event.secrets.CONSENT_FORM_URL, options);
    }
};

// if user clicks 'I agree' on the consent form, save it to their profile so they don't get prompted again
exports.onContinuePostLogin = async (event, api) => {
  if (event.request.body.confirm === "yes") {
    api.user.setUserMetadata("consentGiven", true);
    api.user.setUserMetadata("consentTimestamp", Date.now());
    return;
  } else {
    return api.access.deny("User did not consent");
  }
};

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Return to Auth0 Dashboard > Auth0 Pipeline > Rules and scroll down to the bottom of the page where the Settings section is. Create a key/value pair as follows:
1. Key: CONSENT_FORM_URL
2. Value: your-consent-form-url.com

Be sure to provide the publicly-accessible URL where your consent form can be found.

When setting up redirection to your consent form for use in a Production environment, be sure to review Trusted Callback URLs and Data Integrity regarding security concerns.

If you require a specialized consent prompt, for example a parental consent, you need to build your own custom consent form. Be aware that laws vary according to country.

We are done with the configuration part, let's test!

Test the configuration

Run the application and go to https://localhost:3000.
Sign up with a new user. You will be redirected to the consent form.
Check the I agree flag, and click Submit.
Go to Auth0 Dashboard > User Management > Users, and search for your new user.
Go to User Details, and scroll down to the Metadata section.
At the user_metadata text area, you should see the consentGiven metadata set to true and the consentTimestamp set to the Unix timestamp of the moment the user consented.

That's it, you are done!

GDPR: Track Consent with Custom UI

Secure

GDPR: Track Consent with Custom UI

Overview

Option 1: Use auth0.js

Option 2: Use the API (database)

Option 4: Redirect to another page

Test the configuration

On This Page

Secure

GDPR: Track Consent with Custom UI

Overview

Option 1: Use auth0.js

Option 2: Use the API (database)

Option 3: Use the API (social)

Option 4: Redirect to another page

Test the configuration

On This Page