What is consent in session replay?

Consent, in the context of session replay, is the user's explicit and informed agreement to have their session recorded, given before any recording starts and revocable at any time.

Why it matters

Session replay is not strictly necessary for a site to function, so in many jurisdictions it needs a legal basis, and for most consumer products that basis is consent. A recorder that starts capturing on page load and asks later has already collected data it may not be allowed to hold.

Consent also has to be honoured technically, not just displayed in a banner. The SDK must stay dormant until told otherwise, buffer nothing that could later be uploaded, and stop cleanly if consent is withdrawn. PII rules apply to whatever was recorded in between.

How AnyReplay handles it

Both AnyReplay SDKs expose requireConsent, default false. Set it to true and the SDK records nothing until your application calls anyreplay('consent', true) on the web, or the consent function in React Native, typically from your existing cookie or privacy dialog. Until that call, no events are captured and no requests are made. Consent sits alongside, not instead of, the other safeguards: input masking still applies to every recorded session, and data retention still limits how long it is kept. The privacy feature page walks through the whole setup.