FAQ
Does the gate hurt my SEO?
Section titled “Does the gate hurt my SEO?”No — the gate is an overlay on top of your normal pages, so search engines fetch the full content at the real URLs. On Pro you can additionally let crawlers through without the overlay at all. Full explanation in SEO and crawlers.
Does the gate slow down my store?
Section titled “Does the gate slow down my store?”The embed adds about 6 KB of JavaScript and 2 KB of CSS, served from Shopify’s CDN with your theme assets. It makes no external requests and reads its configuration without any network call, so the measurable impact on page speed is negligible. For returning verified visitors, an inline pre-check hides the gate before first paint — no flash of the overlay.
Does it work with my theme?
Section titled “Does it work with my theme?”Yes — the gate is a theme app embed, which works with every Online Store 2.0 theme (all current free and paid Shopify themes). It doesn’t modify your theme’s code, and it renders above your layout regardless of the theme’s styling.
Does it block checkout, cart or customer accounts?
Section titled “Does it block checkout, cart or customer accounts?”The gate covers your online storefront pages. Shopify checkout is a separate, protected surface that apps cannot overlay. In practice this doesn’t matter for compliance posture: with Entire store scope a visitor must pass the gate before they can browse to any product or reach the cart in the first place.
Can a visitor bypass the gate?
Section titled “Can a visitor bypass the gate?”Like every storefront age gate on Shopify (and on the web generally), the check runs in the visitor’s browser and is declarative — it asks rather than verifies documents. A technically savvy visitor could disable JavaScript or clear cookies. This is the industry-standard mechanism regulators expect for online age affirmation; if your jurisdiction requires documentary ID verification, you need a dedicated identity-check provider at checkout in addition to a gate.
Is the app GDPR-compliant?
Section titled “Is the app GDPR-compliant?”The app is built to keep you compliant with minimal surface: no personal data about shoppers is collected, date-of-birth entries never leave the browser, the single cookie is functional, and Shopify’s mandatory privacy webhooks are fully implemented with real deletion. See Data & cookies and the privacy policy.
Do I need to add the cookie to my cookie banner?
Section titled “Do I need to add the cookie to my cookie banner?”The optan_ag_pass cookie is functional (it exists to honor an
age-restriction obligation, contains no identifier, and does no tracking), so
it generally belongs in the “strictly necessary” category that does not
require prior consent. Listing it in your cookie policy is good practice — the
ready-made table is in
Data & cookies.
Is the gate accessible?
Section titled “Is the gate accessible?”Yes. The dialog uses proper role="dialog" / aria-modal semantics, keyboard
focus is trapped inside it, Escape is intentionally disabled (a gate must
not be dismissible), the date field uses the native date picker with
autocomplete="bday", and the default colors meet contrast guidelines.
Which visitors does the per-country age apply to?
Section titled “Which visitors does the per-country age apply to?”The country comes from Shopify’s localization context (Shopify Markets) — the same country selection that drives currency and pricing on your storefront. Countries without a specific entry use your default minimum age. See Per-country ages.
What exactly does the consent log store about a visitor?
Section titled “What exactly does the consent log store about a visitor?”Outcome (pass/decline), two-letter country code, timestamp, and your shop domain. No IP address, no user agent, no identifier of any kind. See Consent log.
What happens when I uninstall the app?
Section titled “What happens when I uninstall the app?”The gate disappears from your storefront (the embed is removed with the app), the app’s access to your store is revoked and its session data deleted immediately, and about 48 hours later Shopify triggers the erasure of all remaining shop data — including every consent event. Nothing is left in your theme code.
Can I use the app on Shopify POS?
Section titled “Can I use the app on Shopify POS?”No — the gate applies to the Online Store sales channel only. In-person sales have their own ID-check obligations at the counter.
I have a question that isn’t here
Section titled “I have a question that isn’t here”Write to support@optanapps.com — see Support.