Cookie Consent Banner — PDPL, GDPR & Arabic RTL (Arqam360)

Arqam360 makes Google and Meta tags work properly with consent on WordPress sites in the Middle East and North Africa: company websites first, and WooCommerce stores too. The banner renders natively in Arabic, right to left, and in English, and asks before analytics and advertising tags run, so Google and Meta receive the visitor's real choice instead of guessing. The plugin loads the banner in the page <head>, before any other script WordPress prints, so the Google Consent Mode v2 "denied" default is in place before your tags read it. When the visitor chooses, the banner updates Consent Mode, records the decision with its date and time, and keeps the settings reachable so consent can be withdrawn at any time. The free plan covers one domain and 10,000 pageviews a month, with no time limit and no credit card: the Arabic and English banner, Saudi PDPL, UAE PDPA and GDPR rules, Google Consent Mode v2, Global Privacy Control, a bilingual cookie declaration and a consent log you can export. Pro ($29.99/month) adds the full cookie scanner, a data-request portal, script and request blocking until consent, and server-side forwarding of consented events to Meta Conversions API, GA4, server-side Google Tag Manager, TikTok, Snap, LinkedIn and others. Managed is for businesses that want it done for them: the Arqam360 team installs the banner, wires Consent Mode, tests your Google and Meta tags and maintains the setup, for $299 one-off plus $99.99/month per domain. Features

• Arabic and English — native right-to-left Arabic, pinned or following the visitor's language
• Google Consent Mode v2 — denied by default in <head>, updated on the visitor's choice
• Saudi PDPL, UAE PDPA and GDPR — with optional detection of the visitor's regime by country
• Consent log — every decision stored with its date, time and categories, exportable as CSV
• Bilingual cookie declaration — every cookie described in English and Arabic
• 124-pattern cookie classifier — 37 of the patterns cover services common in this region, so the scanner can sort local cookies into the right category
• Script and request blocking — optional, holds trackers that ignore Consent Mode until consent
• Global Privacy Control — honoured as an opt-out signal
• WP Consent API — passes the visitor's choice to plugins that read it, such as Google Site Kit's Consent Mode, WooCommerce and WP Statistics
• Cookie scanner, data-request portal and server-side events — on Pro
• Audience activation — sync consented first-party segments to ad platforms (Managed plan)
• Dashboard inside wp-admin — opens your Arqam360 dashboard without leaving WordPress

Works on any WordPress site, with or without WooCommerce.

1. In wp-admin go to Plugins > Add New, search for Arqam360, then Install and Activate. (Or upload the zip under Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin.)
2. Create a free account at arqam360.com if you do not have one.
3. In your Arqam360 dashboard open API Keys and copy both credentials: the Widget Key (ciq_live_...) and the Site Token (ciq_sk_live_...). The Site Token is shown only once, when you create it.
4. Back in wp-admin go to Arqam360 > Settings, paste both, and save.
5. Load your site in a private window — the banner appears immediately.

The Widget Key runs the banner. The Site Token opens your Arqam360 dashboard inside wp-admin. See Credentials below for why there are two.

2.2.0

• WP Consent API support. When the WP Consent API plugin is active, the visitor's choice in the Arqam360 banner is passed on to it: analytics to "statistics" and "statistics-anonymous", marketing to "marketing", preferences to "preferences", and "functional" is always allowed. Plugins that read the WP Consent API, including Google Site Kit's Consent Mode, now follow the banner. Before this, with no consent plugin registered, the WP Consent API reported every category as allowed, whatever the visitor chose. The plugin also declares itself compatible, so Site Health no longer lists it as unregistered, and describes its consent cookie to the API. Without the WP Consent API installed nothing changes.

2.1.0

• Settings page now tells agencies and developers the partner programme exists — 20% of what a referred client pays, for 12 months. Shown only on the plugin's own settings page, never as an admin notice, and it tracks nothing: attribution happens at signup on arqam360.com, not inside wp-admin.

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-256x256.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