What is the GPS cookie?
GPS is an HTTP cookie placed by YouTube, a service owned by Google, when a visitor interacts with a YouTube video player embedded on a website, or visits youtube.com directly.
It typically appears on pages containing embedded YouTube videos, often after the user presses "Play" or otherwise interacts with the player, as part of Google's broader suite of advertising and analytics cookies tied to its video services.
What data it stores
The GPS cookie is used to approximate the geographic location of the user's device, based on the IP address or other signals available in the browser. It does not store precise GPS coordinates, but rather a session-linked identifier used for coarse geolocation.
The exact value format is not publicly documented in detail by Google and may vary. Collected data is transmitted to YouTube/Google servers, which may be located outside the European Economic Area as part of the company's global infrastructure.
What it is used for
For Google, GPS helps correlate video interactions with a geographic region, supporting video performance measurement and ad targeting associated with the YouTube player.
For the website owner embedding the video, this cookie provides no direct functional benefit to the visitor — it is part of Google's tracking ecosystem, triggered automatically once the video content is played.
Does it require consent?
GPS is classified as a marketing cookie (advertising/tracking), since it contributes to user profiling for YouTube and Google Ads. Under GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive (transposed in Romania via Law 506/2004), this type of cookie requires prior consent from the visitor before being set.
- YouTube players should not autoload before the visitor has given consent for the marketing category.
- Site owners must disclose this cookie in their cookie policy, naming the provider (YouTube/Google) and its purpose.
- Using "privacy-enhanced mode" (youtube-nocookie.com) can help but is only a partial mitigation, not a full compliance solution, since cookies may still be set after interaction.
How to block or delete GPS
A visitor can manually delete or block the GPS cookie via browser settings (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari) under cookie management for the youtube.com domain, or by using tracker-blocking browser extensions.
For site owners, the practical solution is to automatically block the YouTube player (replacing it temporarily with a placeholder image or neutral frame) until the visitor accepts the marketing category. A CMP such as CookieFix can handle this automatically, preventing the YouTube script and its cookies from loading until explicit consent is given.
Frequently asked questions
It's not malware, but it is a tracking cookie used for approximate geolocation and advertising purposes, which is why it requires consent under GDPR.
The cookie is set by the embedded YouTube player on the page regardless of whether the visitor is signed in, as long as they interact with the video.
It has a typical duration of about 30 minutes, functioning as a short-lived session cookie tied to real-time geographic tracking.
Yes, if your site includes embedded YouTube videos, you must declare this cookie as a third-party marketing/tracking cookie set by YouTube (Google).