The Essential Fields Every Online Consent Log Should Capture

Online businesses increasingly rely on consent:

• acceptance of website Terms & Conditions
• acknowledgement of privacy notices and data processing
• cookie and tracking preferences
• email, SMS and other marketing opt-ins

Many teams focus on the front-end of consent — where to put the checkbox, how to phrase the copy, whether a banner hurts conversion.

But from a legal and compliance perspective, what really matters is the record you can produce later.

A good consent log should clearly answer:
Who agreed to what, when, where and how.

In this article we'll walk through:

• the core fields every consent log should capture
• why each field matters in practice
• common shortcuts that cause problems later
• how a system like SolidWraps handles these fields out of the box

Why consent logs need structure, not just "we have data somewhere"

When a regulator, payment provider, partner or customer asks you to prove consent, you don't want to:

• dig through generic web analytics
• reconstruct events from error-prone logs
• guess which terms or policy version applied at the time

Many privacy and data protection frameworks emphasise that businesses should be able to demonstrate valid consent, where they rely on it. That's hard to do if your only record is a Boolean flag like accepted_terms = true or a couple of screenshots.

A defensible consent log is:

• structured – standard fields for each event
• historical – you keep a timeline, not just the latest state
• linked – each event ties to a specific user and a specific policy or message

Below are the fields that make that possible.

1. Subject identifier: whose consent is this?

The first question any reviewer will ask is: who does this consent record relate to?

Depending on your business, that might be:

• a registered user (internal user ID or account ID)
• a customer (CRM ID, email address, phone number)
• an anonymous visitor (for cookie consent, a browser/device ID)

Why it matters

Without a reliable identifier, you can't:

• retrieve all consents relating to a particular person
• respond effectively to data subject requests or customer disputes
• reconcile what your logs say with what your CRM, billing or support tools say

Practical tips

• Store a stable internal ID (e.g. user_id, customer_id) wherever possible.
• If you also store email/phone, treat those as attributes that can change over time.
• For anonymous consent (like cookies), store a device or browser identifier that you can map back later.

2. Policy or message identifier: what did they agree to?

Next, you need to know what, exactly, the user was asked to accept or acknowledge.

Typical categories include:

• Terms & Conditions / Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy or privacy notice
• Cookie Policy or cookie notice
• Marketing consent text (email, SMS, calls, push notifications)
• Feature- or product-specific terms

A robust log doesn't just say "accepted terms". It links to:

• a policy type (e.g. terms, privacy, cookie, marketing)
• a specific version of the document or message (e.g. terms_v5, a version ID or hash)

Why it matters

In a dispute or audit, the question is rarely "did they accept something?" but:

• which version of the Terms did they accept before a price or feature change?
• did they accept a privacy notice that actually covered the processing in question?
• did they opt in to this type of marketing, with this wording?

Without versioning and identifiers, you can't answer those questions with confidence.

Practical tips

• Maintain a versioned catalogue of policies and key consent messages.
• Give each version a unique ID and store that in every consent record.
• Avoid overwriting documents in place; always create a new version when content changes.

3. Timestamp (with timezone): when did consent happen?

Every consent entry should include:

• a precise timestamp (date + time)
• a timezone or standard (e.g. UTC)

Why it matters

Time matters in several ways:

• You may need to show that consent existed at a specific point, such as when:
  • a purchase was made
  • a promotion ran
  • a data processing activity began
• You may need to show the sequence of events:
  • user accepted old terms
  • you updated the policy
  • user later accepted the new version
• You may need to compare consent timestamps with other events (complaints, withdrawals, technical logs, etc.)

Practical tips

• Store timestamps in a consistent standard (UTC works well) and convert for display.
• Avoid vague fields like "last_updated" without context; keep the original consent event timestamp.

4. IP address and approximate location: where did consent come from?

Capturing the IP address at the time of consent allows you to derive:

• a rough geographic location (country, and sometimes region/state)
• some insight into which legal framework may apply

Why it matters

Different regions often have different expectations for:

• what information must be shown at the point of consent
• how consent should be captured and withdrawn
• what rights users have in relation to their data

Location information is not a perfect proxy (people travel and use VPNs), but it provides important context when you're trying to show that you took reasonable steps to apply the right notices and flows.

Practical tips

• Store raw IP addresses securely and treat them as personal data.
• Derive and store country/region codes (e.g. country_code, region_code) for reporting.
• Use location as part of your logic for which policy or message to show in the first place.

5. Channel and device: how did the user interact?

Consent may be captured through multiple channels:

• website (desktop, mobile web)
• mobile apps (iOS, Android)
• customer portal or dashboard
• customer support or sales-assisted flows

Recording the channel and, where relevant, device type (e.g. web vs app) helps you understand how consent was obtained.

Why it matters

Channel and device context can be important when:

• reproducing the interface for a regulator or court
• investigating whether a specific app or site version showed the correct text
• demonstrating that mobile users had the same opportunity to review terms as desktop users

Practical tips

• Include a channel field (e.g. web, ios_app, android_app, support_portal).
• Optionally capture user agent or device family if you need extra technical context.

6. Surface or flow: where in the journey did consent occur?

Beyond "web vs app", it helps to log which part of the user journey consent came from, for example:

• account registration / sign up
• checkout or order confirmation
• subscription or plan change
• feature activation or data-sharing opt-in
• cookie banner on first visit

Why it matters

The same user might agree to different things at different points:

• initial account terms at sign-up
• updated pricing or feature terms at upgrade
• privacy or data-sharing notices for specific features

Knowing which surface or flow was involved helps you show that the consent was contextual and relevant, not buried or disconnected from the action the user was taking.

Practical tips

• Define a controlled vocabulary for flows (e.g. signup, checkout, feature_x_enable, cookie_banner).
• Store this in a surface or flow_name field on each consent event.

7. Action taken: what exactly did the user do?

Your consent log should capture not just that "something happened", but what action the user took:

• accepted / agreed
• declined / rejected
• updated preferences (e.g. changed marketing preferences, cookie categories)
• withdrew consent

Why it matters

A healthy consent system is not one-way. People may:

• agree and later withdraw consent
• change the scope of their marketing preferences
• accept updated terms after reviewing changes

You need to show the full story over time, not just the last known state.

Practical tips

• Use an action field (e.g. accepted, declined, updated, withdrawn).
• Treat each meaningful change as a new event, not a silent update to an existing record.

8. Evidence reference: can you show what they saw?

Some businesses also store a reference to what the user actually saw at the time of consent, for example:

• a link to the hosted policy version
• a hash of the content presented
• a snapshot of the key UI text or layout

This doesn't have to be a full screenshot for every event, but having a way to reconstruct or reference the consent screen makes your evidence more persuasive.

Why it matters

Policies and interfaces change. Years later, you may need to:

• show that the wording at that time was clear and fair
• demonstrate that key information (like pricing or data uses) was presented near the consent action
• explain your design choices to a non-technical audience

Practical tips

• Store an identifier for the policy version and, where possible, the consent component or layout version.
• Keep policy documents versioned rather than overwritten, so you can retrieve historical text.

9. Metadata and audit information

Finally, a consent log can include technical and operational metadata that supports integrity and diagnostics, such as:

• integration or application ID (source_app, integration_name)
• environment (production, staging)
• internal user or process that triggered the event (for admin actions)

Why it matters

Metadata helps you:

• troubleshoot integration issues
• prove that records came from a legitimate system, in a particular environment
• separate test data from real production data

It also supports internal controls, especially where administrators or sales teams can capture consent on behalf of users.

Common shortcuts that weaken your consent log

Even businesses that care about consent often fall into similar traps:

• Single Boolean flag

  • Storing only accepted_terms = true on the user record, with no history.

• No link to specific versions

  • Logs say "accepted terms" but don't show which version of the document applied.

• Scattered records

  • Some data in web analytics, some in CRM, some in backend logs – with no single, coherent view.

• Overwriting instead of appending

  • Updating an existing record whenever consent changes, losing the timeline in the process.

These shortcuts can make it difficult to demonstrate valid consent when it matters most.

How SolidWraps handles these fields out of the box

SolidWraps is designed to help online businesses capture structured, defensible consent logs without building everything from scratch.

While every business still needs its own legal advice, SolidWraps focuses on the operational side:

1. Versioned policy library

SolidWraps lets you host and version:

• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy Policies
• Cookie notices and policies
• Other user-facing legal text

Each version has a stable identifier that consent events can reference, making it clear what users agreed to.

2. Drop-in clickwrap and consent components

You can embed SolidWraps components into key journeys (signup, checkout, feature enablement, banners), and they will:

• show the right policies and notices for the user's context
• require clear, affirmative actions where appropriate
• feed structured consent events into your log

3. Structured consent events with rich context

When users interact with SolidWraps flows, the platform records consent events with fields such as:

• subject identifier (user/customer, where provided)
• policy type(s) and version(s)
• timestamp and environment
• IP-based location context
• channel and surface (e.g. signup, checkout, banner)
• action taken (accepted, updated, withdrawn)

This gives you a single, coherent audit trail that you can query, export and use to support internal reviews and external requests.

Turning your consent log into an asset, not an afterthought

For many online businesses, the consent log is an overlooked implementation detail. But when a serious question arises — from a regulator, partner or customer — it quickly becomes one of the most important systems you have.

By making sure your consent log always captures:

• who
• what
• when
• where
• how

you put yourself in a much better position to:

• demonstrate compliance with your chosen legal basis
• defend your terms and practices if challenged
• build more trust with customers and partners

You can build this yourself with careful design and discipline. Or you can lean on a system like SolidWraps that bakes these principles into how policies are served and consents are recorded.

Either way, treating your consent log as a first-class part of your architecture — not a checkbox on a form — is one of the most valuable steps you can take to reduce legal and operational risk as your online business grows.