Consent Management Platform | Capture, Maintain & Orchestrate Consent

Q: What is a consent management platform (CMP)?

A consent management platform (CMP) is a system that helps organizations capture, maintain, and orchestrate user consent across their data privacy infrastructure.

Q: What is the difference between a basic cookie tool and a centralised consent management system?

A basic cookie tool manages website cookies, while a centralised consent management system provides comprehensive consent capture, maintenance, and orchestration across all organizational systems and touchpoints.

Q: Why is centralising consent important for compliance?

Centralising consent provides a single, auditable registry that ensures transparency, improves opt-in quality, and maintains compliance across your entire organization from one unified foundation.

Q: How does consent orchestration work?

Consent orchestration operationalises consent across systems throughout your ecosystem, ensuring consent preferences are synchronized and enforced across all connected platforms and tools.

Q: How does a centralised CMP improve DSR response accuracy?

A centralised CMP improves monitoring, accuracy and efficiency in DSAR responses by maintaining a unified consent registry that provides clear visibility into all consent-related data.

Q: Is consent management only about cookies?

No, consent management extends beyond cookies to encompass enterprise privacy operations, including consent capture across all touchpoints, maintenance in a unified registry, and orchestration across your entire data ecosystem.

Solutions

Why TrustWorks

Use Cases

For Scale-ups

Get instant and reliable foundations of scalable privacy program for fast-growing and agile businesses.

For Enterprises

Bring modern capabilities to your existing toolkit and boost the efficiency of your Privacy Program.

For Privacy Leaders & Innovators

Build your privacy program efficiently, leveraging easy-to-use automations.

For Information Security and
Engineering

Bridge the gap between privacy and engineering teams.

Realtime Data Inventory

Get full visibility on data used and shared across your organisation.

Privacy By Design (Code Scanner)

Identify how data is processed and shared in your internal tools and products.

Record of Processing Activities

Real-time identification of gaps and outdated records in your RoPA.

TrustWorks Engage

Automated identification and Al-assisted assessment of ongoing initiatives in your organisation.

Smart Vendor Intelligence

Gain full visibility into your third-party ecosystem and equip privacy teams to assess and manage risk efficiently

AI Governance (AI Act)

Automatically identify, classify and manage AI systems and risks.

Data Subject Requests

Automate and streamline DSRs efficiently.

Privacy Assessments

Leverage assessment workflow templates (for DPIAs, PIAs, TIAs) built by privacy teams from leading global businesses.

Risk Management

Take control of risks with confidence in decision-making

Resources

DSR Cost Calculator

Estimate the cost of DSR fulfillment in your organisation.

Integrations

Automate your privacy operations using our prebuilt and secure connectors.

Learn & Compare

TrustWorks Library

Blog posts, guides, case studies and podcasts with meaningful insights and best practices on privacy & AI governance.

TrustWorks vs OneTrust

Discover why scaleups and enterprises migrate to TrustWorks.

Success Stories

Check how our customers transformed their Privacy & AI Governance

Company

About TrustWorks

What we stand for, how we got here, and where we’re headed

Privacy community

Join 600+ privacy innovators in a private community.

Careers

We are hiring! Check our open positions.

Partners

Unlock new business opportunities.

Solutions

Privacy Rights Automation

How QueryLayer supports automation of Data Subject Requests, Marketing Preferences, and Account Deletion.

Collaboration around Privacy Operations

Privacy Operations are no longer just for Legal and Compliance teams.

Automated Data Maps

Keep your Data Map & RoPAs consistent and up-to-date.

Resources

DSR Cost Calculator

Estimate the cost of DSR fulfillment in your organisation.

Company

About us

Know more about our company and mission

Careers

We are hiring! Check our open positions

Slack Community

Join our Community of Privacy Leaders and CISOs

Get in touch!

CONSENT CAPTURE

Capture consent wherever it happens

Collect purpose-based consent across channels — including cookies and similar tracking technologies — without relying on ad-hoc tools or manual processes. Provide a transparent, trustworthy consent experience that increases engagement and opt-in quality.

CONSENT MAinteNANCE

A single, auditable consent registry

Move beyond disconnected systems and silos between privacy and business teams. TrustWorks centralises consent records into a unified registry that stays synchronized with external systems and remains compliant and audit-ready at all times.

consent orchestration

Operationalise consent across systems

Consent does not live in a single tool. TrustWorks provides the foundation for scalable consent orchestration across your ecosystem, ensuring preferences are respected wherever personal data is used.

FAQs: Consent management

What is a consent management platform (CMP)?

A consent management platform (CMP) is a system that enables organisations to collect, manage, store, orchestrate and operationalise user consent for data processing activities.
Modern CMPs go beyond cookie banners - they centralise consent records, link them to processing activities, and ensure preferences are respected across systems such as marketing platforms, CRMs, analytics tools, and data warehouses.

What is the difference between a basic cookie tool and a centralised consent management system?

A basic cookie tool:
1. Collects website tracking consent
2. Stores consent locally or in a limited database
3. Does not integrate deeply with backend systems

A centralised consent management system:
1. Captures purpose-based consent across multiple channels
2. Maintains a unified, auditable consent registry
3. Synchronises consent status with downstream systems
4. Links consent to processing activities
5. Supports regulatory reporting and DSAR accuracy

TrustWorks is designed as a foundational consent infrastructure, not just a banner solution.

Why is centralising consent important for compliance?

Fragmented consent systems create significant compliance risk. When consent records are stored across disconnected tools and databases, teams cannot verify whether processing is lawful, audit trails become incomplete, and DSAR responses may contain inaccuracies. Most concerning, non-consensual processing can occur unintentionally when systems aren't synchronized - a direct violation of GDPR and other privacy regulations.
A centralised consent registry solves these challenges by establishing one source of truth for all consent records. This approach enables real-time synchronisation across your entire tech stack, ensures continuous audit readiness, and provides clear linkage between consent and data processing activities. When regulators or auditors request evidence of lawful processing, you have complete, accurate records immediately available rather than scrambling to piece together information from multiple systems.

How does consent orchestration work?

Consent orchestration ensures that user preferences are respected wherever personal data is processed.
This involves:
- Capturing consent in a structured, purpose-based format
- Storing consent in a unified registry
- Distributing consent signals to connected systems
- Preventing processing where valid consent does not exist
- Logging all actions for audit evidence
Consent becomes operational logic - not just a stored record.

How does a centralised CMP improve DSR response accuracy?

DSR responses require accurate records of when consent was given, what purposes were agreed to, how consent has changed over time, and where data has been processed.
A centralised consent management platform maintains all these records in a unified registry that synchronises across systems and stores complete audit trails in one place.
This eliminates the manual reconciliation needed when piecing together consent data from multiple disconnected tools, allowing you to retrieve evidence quickly and respond with confidence. The result is faster response times, fewer inaccuracies, and significantly lower compliance risk.

Is consent management only about cookies?

No.
While cookies are a common entry point for consent management, consent applies to many processing activities across your organization including email marketing, SMS campaigns, profiling and personalization, data sharing with third parties, and tracking across digital channels.
Enterprise privacy operations and consent management extends beyond website cookie banners to encompass your entire data ecosystem, ensuring consent preferences are respected wherever personal data is collected, stored, or processed.