What does pcmag.com track?
Before any consent, pcmag.com loaded 5 tracking companies and set 1 advertising or analytics cookie.
That's more tracking companies than 78% of the 2,450 sites we scanned.
Scanned October 2, 2026 from Germany, loading uk.pcmag.com once and clicking nothing. How we scan
- Tracking companies
- 5
- Tracking cookies
- 1
- Third-party hosts
- 22
- Cookies in total
- 7
Consent banner
The page loaded OneTrust, a consent management platform. Everything below was recorded before anyone answered it. 5 tracking companies still loaded while it was unanswered.
Companies contacted before consent
3 of the 12 companies it contacted before consent were advertising companies.
- DoubleVerify5 requestsAdvertising
pub.doubleverify.com, vtrk.dv.tech
- Google Ads4 requestsAdvertising
securepubads.g.doubleclick.net
- Amazon Advertising3 requestsAdvertising
config.aps.amazon-adsystem.com, client.aps.amazon-adsystem.com, c.amazon-adsystem.com
- Google Analytics5 requestsAnalytics
www.googletagmanager.com, www.google-analytics.com, region1.google-analytics.com
- Scorecard Research (Comscore)1 requestAnalytics
sb.scorecardresearch.com
Other third parties (content delivery, consent, functional, unclassified)
- lightboxcdn.com1 requestUnclassified
www.lightboxcdn.com
- OneTrust7 requestsConsent banner
cdn.cookielaw.org, geolocation.onetrust.com
- Evidon (Crownpeak)2 requestsConsent banner
c.evidon.com
- Google1 requestFunctional
fundingchoicesmessages.google.com
- Ziff Davis18 requestsContent delivery
cdn.ziffstatic.com, cdn.static.zdbb.net, metrics.rapidedge.io, zdbb.net
- unpkg5 requestsContent delivery
unpkg.com
- jsDelivr2 requestsContent delivery
cdn.jsdelivr.net
Cookies set before consent
The longest-lived tracking cookie it set was opt_out, lasting about 13 months.
| Cookie | Purpose | Set by | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| opt_out | Advertising | pcmag.com | 13 months |
| csp | Unclassified | zdbb.net (third party) | 30 days |
| fu | Unclassified | uk.pcmag.com | 30 days |
| geoCC | Unclassified | pcmag.com | Session |
| h_zdbb | Unclassified | zdbb.net (third party) | 6 months |
| zd_core_lialready | Unclassified | pcmag.com | 15 days |
| OptanonConsent | Functional | pcmag.com | 12 months |
Understanding this page
- How to see which cookies and trackers a website loads
A hands-on walkthrough for checking what a site sets before you've clicked anything, using Chrome and Firefox's built-in tools, plus how CookieTosser automates the same check every month.
- What counts as valid cookie consent in the EU
The rules that actually govern cookie banners — the ePrivacy Directive, the GDPR consent standard, the Planet49 ruling, the strictly-necessary exemption, and what "reject" has to offer compared with "accept.
- Consent management platforms explained
What a CMP banner is actually doing behind the scenes, how the IAB's TCF standard and Google's Consent Mode v2 fit in, and why a banner being present is no guarantee that nothing loads before you answer it.