Privacy Assessment

The Privacy Assessment module in Attackmetricx is a comprehensive privacy and compliance auditing engine designed to help organizations assess, understand, and improve the privacy posture of their websites.

Unlike basic compliance checkers, Attackmetricx performs behavior-based analysis by observing how a website actually behaves before and after user consent, providing organizations with a clear, defensible, and evidence-based view of their real privacy compliance status.

This module bridges the gap between legal privacy requirements (such as GDPR) and technical website behavior, translating complex privacy rules into actionable and measurable insights.

Privacy Regulations and Why They Matter

Privacy regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) govern how personal data is collected, processed, stored, and shared.

From a website perspective, these regulations focus on:

  • User consent before tracking or data collection

  • Transparency in how data is used

  • Control over cookies and third-party services

  • Clear and accessible privacy and cookie policies

Failure to comply may result in:

  • Legal penalties and regulatory fines

  • Loss of user trust and brand credibility

  • Enforcement actions by regulatory authorities

Attackmetricx enables organizations to proactively identify privacy risks and demonstrate compliance through continuous, automated monitoring.

Privacy Assessment Dashboard

Purpose of the Page

The Privacy Assessment page provides a centralized view of all organizational websites registered in Attackmetricx and their current privacy assessment status.

From this page, users can:

  • Add new websites for privacy assessment

  • Monitor scan results and overall privacy status

  • Access detailed assessment reports per website

  • Track scan history and last activity

Website List View

Each website entry includes:

  • Website URL The domain or full URL being assessed.

  • Status

    • Completed: The privacy assessment finished successfully and results are available.

    • Blocked: The assessment could not be fully completed due to access restrictions or technical limitations.

  • Added Date The date the website was first registered in Attackmetricx.

  • Last Scan The timestamp of the most recent privacy assessment.

  • Actions

    • Re-scan the website

    • Remove the website from monitoring

  • Details (>>) Opens the detailed Website Privacy Assessment report.

Adding a Website

Users can add a new website using the Add Website action located in the top-right corner of the page.

How It Works

  1. Enter the website URL

  2. Attackmetricx schedules a privacy assessment

  3. The system analyzes website behavior under real conditions

  4. Results are mapped against privacy and consent best practices

No code changes, scripts, or installations are required on the target website.

Website Privacy Assessment

To view detailed results, users can click the “>>” icon on the right side of a website record. This action opens the Website Privacy Assessment page, which contains the full privacy breakdown and detailed analysis for the selected website.

This page represents the core of the Privacy Assessment feature.

Audit Metadata

At the top of the assessment report, Attackmetricx displays key scan information and actions:

  • Rescan Website Allows users to manually trigger a new privacy assessment. This is useful after updating cookie banners, modifying tracking behavior, or applying privacy-related fixes.

  • Website Displays the assessed domain.

  • Scan Date Shows the exact date and time the privacy assessment was performed.

  • Website Screenshot

    • Displays a visual snapshot of the website when available

    • Helps confirm visibility and accessibility during the scan

This section answers a critical privacy question:

What happens on the website before the user gives consent?

Attackmetricx evaluates whether any tracking or third-party activity occurs before consent is granted, which is a key requirement under privacy regulations.

  • Third-Party Trackers

  • Third-Party Cookies

  • Third-Party Fonts

  • Third-Party Domains

Each metric is counted and clearly displayed to allow instant identification of privacy violations.

Why It Matters

A cookie banner is required whenever cookies or third-party services are used that are not strictly necessary.

What Attackmetricx Checks

  • Presence of a visible cookie banner

  • Ability to delay non-essential cookies until consent

  • Alignment with consent and transparency best practices

If no banner is detected, Attackmetricx flags this as a privacy compliance risk.

Third-Party Trackers

This section analyzes tracking technologies such as analytics tools, marketing pixels, and behavioral trackers.

What Is Evaluated

  • Total trackers detected

  • Trackers loaded before consent

  • Trackers loaded after consent

Trackers must not activate before user permission. Attackmetricx verifies actual runtime behavior, not just configuration settings.

Third-Party Cookies

This section evaluates cookies set by third-party services and their compliance with privacy consent rules.

What Attackmetricx Evaluates

  • Total Detected The total number of third-party cookies identified.

  • Before Consent Third-party cookies set before user consent, which may indicate a privacy violation unless strictly necessary.

  • After Consent Cookies activated only after user consent, representing correct behavior.

For each cookie, Attackmetricx displays:

  • Cookie Name

  • Domain that set the cookie

  • Expiration Date

  • Consent Status (Before or After Consent)

  • Risk Status

This allows teams to quickly identify problematic services and required remediation.

For each detected cookie, Attackmetricx provides:

  • Cookie Name

  • Domain that set the cookie

  • Expiration Date

  • Consent Status (Before or After Consent)

  • Risk Status (e.g. Medium Risk)

This level of visibility helps teams quickly identify which services are violating consent rules and where remediation is required.

Fonts Analysis

The Fonts section evaluates how fonts are loaded and whether they pose a privacy risk.

Why Fonts Matter

External font providers may:

  • Expose user IP addresses

  • Share metadata with third parties

  • Require explicit user consent in some regions

What Attackmetricx Checks

  • Total Detected The total number of fonts used by the website.

  • Third-Party Fonts Identifies fonts loaded from external providers.

Locally hosted fonts are highlighted as a privacy-friendly best practice and classified as No Risk.

Third-Party Domains

This section identifies external domains contacted by the website during page load or runtime.

Why This Is Critical

Each third-party domain represents a potential:

  • Data transfer

  • Tracking endpoint

  • Privacy compliance risk

Non-essential third-party domains must not be contacted before user consent.

What Attackmetricx Analyzes

  • Total detected domains

  • Domains contacted before consent

  • Domains contacted after consent

Domain-Level Breakdown

For each domain, Attackmetricx provides:

  • Domain Name

  • Consent Status

  • Risk Level

This helps teams identify unexpected dependencies and data-sharing paths.

First-Party Cookies

Not all cookies are restricted under privacy regulations.

What Is Allowed

  • Strictly necessary cookies (e.g. session management)

  • Security-related cookies

Attackmetricx confirms that:

  • Only essential cookies load before consent

  • Optional cookies respect user permission

What Attackmetricx Checks

  • Presence of a cookie policy page

  • Accessibility and visibility

  • Alignment with detected cookie behavior

Missing policies are flagged as privacy gaps requiring attention.

Privacy Policy Detection

A privacy policy is a fundamental requirement under modern privacy regulations.

Attackmetricx Verifies

  • Whether a privacy policy exists

  • Whether it is accessible from the website

  • Whether it supports transparency requirements

Missing or inaccessible policies are clearly flagged to reduce legal and reputational risk.

Why Attackmetricx Stands Out

Attackmetricx goes beyond surface-level privacy checks by:

  • Analyzing real website behavior

  • Separating before vs after consent

  • Mapping technical findings to privacy principles

  • Providing clear, actionable insights

  • Supporting continuous monitoring, not one-time scans

This makes the Privacy Assessment module a powerful tool for security teams, compliance officers, legal teams, and website owners.

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