# Change Cookie Consent Category | Secure Privacy Guide

> Learn how to update a cookie consent category in Secure Privacy — locate the service in the Classification tab, edit its category, and rescan to apply changes to your preference center.

- Canonical: https://support.secureprivacy.ai/article/how-do-i-change-a-consent-category-service-cookie
- Product: Consent Management
- Category: FAQs
- Published: 2026-03-06T12:43:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-03-22T23:05:56.633+00:00
- Reading time: 2 minutes

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If a cookie or service has been miscategorized — or if a business decision requires changing its consent category — you can update it directly in your Secure Privacy account under the **Classification** tab. This guide explains how to locate the service, apply the category change, and rescan to propagate updates across your cookie declaration and preference center.

## Who Is This For?

-   Compliance officers managing and correcting cookie classifications in Secure Privacy
    
-   Website administrators updating consent categories for detected services
    
-   Marketing and legal teams ensuring cookies are correctly classified as Essential, Analytics, Marketing, or Functional
    

## How to Change a Cookie Consent Category

1.  Log in to your Secure Privacy account and select the domain you want to work with.
    
2.  Navigate to the **Classification** tab.
    
3.  Under the **Cookies** tab, locate the cookie you want to update and confirm which **Service** it belongs to.
    

![Secure Privacy Classification tab showing the Cookies view with service associations for each detected cookie](https://knowledgebasecdn.helpwise.io/uploads/234834/206059/4bea01c692d8c784044c8cc9f04b6a87d6df16f9-1738236336-9f3245f98d263470e5cbdef5da0dbb4e4a6fa528)

4.  Since consent categories are assigned to **services** — not individual cookies — switch to the **Services** tab.
    
5.  Find the relevant service, click the **three-dot menu** next to it, and select **Edit**.
    

![Secure Privacy Classification Services tab showing the three-dot menu with Edit option for updating a service's consent category](https://knowledgebasecdn.helpwise.io/uploads/234834/206059/2194efd520e4489c3b39c544c25881634409ba6c-1738236383-b7018889ee22f99612e6916f21c32bde820884f6)

6.  In the edit window, select the required category from the dropdown and click **Save**.
    

![Secure Privacy service edit modal showing the Category dropdown for changing the consent category assignment](https://knowledgebasecdn.helpwise.io/uploads/234834/206059/fd4f80adf6e7c5b5c71a77aeb56b08ef211b22e0-1738236434-677a7e04db1e9783f18ccf2d131f37cb1929f593)

7.  Navigate to **Scan Report > Rescan Website** to propagate your changes across the scan report, preference center, and cookie/privacy policies.
    

![Secure Privacy Scan Report page showing the Rescan Website button to apply classification changes](https://pub-7bd19505838640d0a08ef1bd6ec3fb9b.r2.dev/articles/7ff2a474b433f67f98e6-9cfaa8ed049e.webp)

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Can I change the consent category for a specific cookie directly?

No. Consent categories are assigned at the **service** level — not to individual cookies. To change the category for a cookie, locate the service it belongs to using the Cookies tab, then edit the service's category in the Services tab. All cookies associated with that service will inherit the updated category after a rescan.

### Why don't my changes appear immediately in the preference center?

After editing a service category, you must trigger a website rescan from **Scan Report > Rescan Website**. The rescan updates your scan report, preference center, and cookie/privacy policies to reflect the new classification.

### How do I find which service a specific cookie belongs to?

Navigate to the **Classification** tab and open the **Cookies** tab. Each cookie entry shows its associated service name — use this to identify which service you need to edit before switching to the Services tab to make the category change.

## See Also

-   [How to Manage Cookie Classifications](https://support.secureprivacy.ai/article/how-to-classify-cookies-and-services-for-a-domain)
    
-   [How to Perform a Website Rescan](https://support.secureprivacy.ai/article/perform-website-rescan--secureprivacy-howto)
    
-   [Add Custom Cookies & Services](https://support.secureprivacy.ai/article/add-custom-cookies--services--secureprivacy-guide)