Description

Free PDPL + GDPR cookie consent banner for Saudi, UAE, and GCC WordPress sites. Native Arabic RTL. Live in 60 seconds. No code, no developer, no credit card.

The free tier covers what most stores need: a compliant banner with PDPL, GDPR, and UAE PDPA detection, native Arabic, Google Consent Mode v2, GPC support, a bilingual cookie declaration page, 1 domain, and 10,000 pageviews per month — forever. Upgrade when you’re ready for the Cookie Scanner, DSAR portal, server-side event forwarding, audience activation, custom banner branding, or multi-domain support.

Key Features:

Google Consent Mode v2 — fires consent signals before any tag loads
18 regulations covered — Saudi PDPL, UAE PDPA, GDPR, CCPA, plus Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Brazil LGPD, Canada PIPEDA, UK GDPR, and more
113-cookie classifier — including MENA-specific services (Tabby, Tamara, Mada, STC Pay, Salla, Zid) that global CMPs miss
Bilingual cookie declarations — every cookie ships with English + Arabic descriptions, on every plan
Native Arabic RTL — built for MENA merchants from day one
AI Cookie Scanner — discover every cookie and tracker (Pro plan)
Server-side event forwarding — Meta CAPI, GA4, sGTM, TikTok, Snap, LinkedIn, HubSpot, Mixpanel, BigQuery, Google Enhanced Conversions
Audience activation — segment your consented first-party data and sync to ad platforms (Pro/Agency plan)
30+ Customization Options — colors, position, text, categories
Auto Regime Detection — detect visitor regulatory regime by IP location
Script + request quarantine — block trackers BEFORE they fire, not just after
GPC Support — respect Global Privacy Control browser signals

Works with WooCommerce and any WordPress site.

Tag manager placement

The plugin loads its script in the document <head>, before any other script
WordPress prints, so the Google Consent Mode v2 «denied» default is set before
your tags read it.

There is one case it cannot control. If your Google Tag Manager or GA4 snippet
is pasted directly into your theme’s header.php above the wp_head()
call, that snippet runs before anything WordPress outputs, including this
plugin — and it will read no consent state.

Two ways to be sure:

Move the GTM snippet below wp_head() in your theme, or
Install GTM through this plugin’s container guidance instead of hardcoding it.

If you manage tags entirely inside a GTM container loaded via a plugin or
wp_head, no action is needed.

Content Security Policy

Most sites have no CSP and need nothing here. If yours sends one — directly, or
through a security plugin — the widget needs three allowances, and it fails
silently without them: the browser blocks the script and no banner appears,
which looks like the plugin is broken rather than like a policy is doing its job.

script-src https://cdn.arqam360.com — the banner script itself.
connect-src https://api.arqam360.com — fetching your widget configuration
and recording consent decisions.
style-src 'unsafe-inline' — the banner builds its stylesheet at runtime so
it can carry your colours and position. If your policy cannot allow inline
styles, tell us and we will work through the alternatives with you rather
than have you weaken the policy site-wide.

The widget contacts no other host. It loads no external fonts and no
third-party resources.

If you embed the Arqam360 dashboard inside wp-admin, that page additionally
needs frame-src https://app.arqam360.com. That applies only to the wp-admin
screen, never to your public pages.

Credentials

The plugin uses two credentials from your Arqam360 dashboard, in the same way
Stripe uses a publishable key and a secret key:

Widget Key (ciq_live_...) — public. It appears in your page source and
loads the consent banner. This is by design; it authorizes the banner and
nothing else.
Site Token (ciq_sk_live_...) — secret. It opens your Arqam360 dashboard
inside wp-admin and is never written to your pages. It is shown once, when
you create it.

The two are not interchangeable and the settings page will refuse a credential
pasted into the wrong field.

External Services

This plugin connects to the Arqam360 service to function:

Arqam360 CDN (cdn.arqam360.com) — The consent banner JavaScript is loaded from Arqam360’s CDN. This script renders the cookie consent banner on your site and handles consent collection. No personal visitor data is sent to the CDN; it only serves the static JavaScript file.
Arqam360 API (api.arqam360.com) — When a Widget Key is configured, the plugin fetches your widget configuration (colors, text, position, compliance settings) from the Arqam360 API. Consent records are also sent to this API for storage and analytics. Your Widget Key authenticates these requests. If a Site Token is also configured, it is used only to open the dashboard inside wp-admin, and is sent from your server to api.arqam360.com over HTTPS — never to a visitor’s browser.

A free Arqam360 account is required (free forever for the consent banner, no credit card). Sign up at arqam360.com.

For agencies and developers

If you build WordPress or WooCommerce sites for clients, Arqam360 runs a partner
programme. Your client subscribes to Arqam360 directly and you earn 20% of what
they actually pay, for 12 months from their first paid invoice.

You install nothing extra and support nothing — we handle the consent side. A
client who stays on the free plan earns you nothing, so this is worth it where
you are already recommending a paid tool.

Terms, including how referrals are attributed and how payouts work:
https://arqam360.com/partners

Installation

Upload the plugin folder to /wp-content/plugins/
Activate through the Plugins menu
Go to Settings > Arqam360
Enter your API key from arqam360.com
Save — the consent banner appears immediately

FAQ

Do I need a separate account?: Yes. Sign up at arqam360.com — free forever for the consent banner, no credit card required. Premium features (Cookie Scanner, DSAR, server-side events, audiences) gate behind paid plans starting at $9.99/mo. New accounts get a 14-day Pro trial to evaluate everything before deciding.
Does this work without WooCommerce?: Yes! Works on any WordPress site.
What is Google Consent Mode v2?: Google requires consent signals before tracking tags fire. Without it, your ads lose conversion tracking. This plugin handles it automatically.
Does it support Arabic?: Yes — native Arabic RTL. Auto-detects language based on visitor preferences.

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“Cookie Consent Banner — PDPL, GDPR & Arabic RTL (Arqam360)” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

arqam360

Translate “Cookie Consent Banner — PDPL, GDPR & Arabic RTL (Arqam360)” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

2.0.9

Split loading now supports regime auto-detection, so choosing it no longer costs you the per-visitor rule set. Previously, enabling auto-detection quietly switched you to the larger combined file because only that one implemented it.

2.0.8

Arabic admin. The plugin’s own settings and dashboard screens now lay out right-to-left correctly. The panel previously reserved space for the admin menu on the wrong side, so the dashboard slid under the menu on Arabic installs. Arabic translations added for every string introduced in 2.0.7.
Banner language can now be pinned to English or Arabic instead of following each visitor’s browser.
Page caches are purged when you save settings. WP Engine, WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, SiteGround Optimizer, LiteSpeed and Cache Enabler are all handled. Rotating your key no longer leaves a cached page serving the old one.
Regime auto-detection now always serves the script that implements it, instead of appearing to be on while doing nothing under split loading.
Documented the Content Security Policy allowances the widget needs.

2.0.7

Tested against WordPress 7.1.
Security. The plugin now uses two separate credentials: a public Widget Key for the banner and a secret Site Token for the dashboard. Previously one key did both jobs, which meant the credential printed in your public page source could also open your Arqam360 account. Your banner keeps working after this update with no changes; to use the dashboard inside wp-admin, add a Site Token in Settings.
Fixed: Google Consent Mode v2 could fire too late. The script was loaded in the page footer with async, so tags placed in <head> could run before the «denied» default was set. It now loads synchronously in <head>, before any other script WordPress prints. See the new «Tag manager placement» section for the one case this cannot cover.
Fixed: the «Respect Global Privacy Control» setting did nothing. It was saved but never sent to the widget, so unchecking it had no effect. It is now honoured.
Removed the IAB TCF option. It was never sent to the widget, and Arqam360 is not a registered IAB CMP, so enabling it would have produced a consent string that ad-tech vendors reject. It will return once registration is complete.
Split loading is now the default: a 3KB script sets the consent default immediately, then the banner loads in the background.

2.0.6

Listing copy updated to reflect the freemium model — banner is free forever (no credit card), premium features (scanner, DSAR, server-side events, audiences) gate behind paid plans. New accounts still get a 14-day Pro trial.

2.0.5

Removed wordpress.org directory assets (icon-256×256.png) from the plugin zip; these are now uploaded separately via SVN per WordPress.org plugin guidelines.

2.0.4

Settings page redesigned with card-grouped sections matching the Arqam360 dashboard look
Dashboard empty state refreshed with brand styling and clearer CTAs
Inline <style> and <script> tags removed from view files; styling moved to admin.css; admin body class set via admin_body_class filter

2.0.3

Trimmed tags to 5 (wordpress.org limit)

2.0.2

Removed deprecated load_plugin_textdomain() call (auto-loaded since WP 4.6)
Aligned readme.txt heading with plugin Plugin Name header
Prefixed dashboard-page.php local variables with arqam360_ to satisfy Plugin Check

2.0.1

Aligned text domain with the assigned plugin slug (arqam360-consent-privacy-pdplgdpr) to satisfy Plugin Check

2.0.0

Embedded dashboard — opens the full Arqam360 dashboard inside wp-admin via a new top-level «Arqam360» menu, no more bouncing to a browser tab
Single-sign-on — the dashboard authenticates automatically using your existing API key; no extra login
Settings page kept and accessible under Arqam360 Settings

1.0.0

Initial release