@@ -0,0 +1,145 @@
+# Consent-Aware Attribution
+
+A recipe for capturing marketing attribution (`utm_*`, `gclid`, `fbclid`) from a form's URL and getting it to your
+backend, without sending it anywhere until the visitor has consented.
+
+## What this is and isn't
+
+This is a host-side recipe, not a Formeo feature. Formeo has no concept of consent, attribution, or analytics, and
+it sends nothing to anywhere on its own — every network call and every consent check below is code your app
+provides. Nothing here names or requires a particular analytics vendor, tag manager, or CRM; adapt the allowlist and
+the transport (Option A or Option B) to whatever your backend expects.
+
+Consent and retention are the host application's responsibility. Formeo only renders a `<form>`, reads
+`renderer.userData`, and (optionally) holds attribution values in hidden fields you add to the form — it doesn't
+decide whether capturing attribution is allowed, and it doesn't store or transmit anything by itself.
+
+## Consent first
+
+Read attribution parameters only after your own consent check passes. Formeo has no opinion on how consent is
+tracked — a cookie banner, a consent management platform, a stored preference — so treat this as a stub you replace
+with your app's real check:
+
+```javascript
+// Provided by your app / consent management tooling. Formeo does not implement this.
+function hasAttributionConsent() {
+  // e.g. return window.__consent?.marketing === true
+  return false
+}
+```
+
+Nothing below should run before `hasAttributionConsent()` returns `true`.
+
+## An allowlist
+
+Read attribution only from an explicit allowlist of query parameters, never the whole query string. Keep values
+non-empty and cap their length so a malformed or hostile URL can't stuff arbitrary data into your backend:
+
+```javascript
+const ATTRIBUTION_ALLOWLIST = ['utm_source', 'utm_medium', 'utm_campaign', 'utm_term', 'utm_content', 'gclid', 'fbclid']
+const MAX_ATTRIBUTION_VALUE_LENGTH = 200
+
+function readAttribution(search = location.search) {
+  const params = new URLSearchParams(search)
+  const attribution = {}
+  for (const key of ATTRIBUTION_ALLOWLIST) {
+    const value = params.get(key)
+    if (value) {
+      attribution[key] = value.slice(0, MAX_ATTRIBUTION_VALUE_LENGTH)
+    }
+  }
+  return attribution
+}
+```
+
+Call this only after `hasAttributionConsent()` is `true`:
+
+```javascript
+const attribution = hasAttributionConsent() ? readAttribution() : {}
+```
+
+There are two ways to get `attribution` to your backend: add it at submit time (Option A), or store it in the
+rendered form as hidden fields (Option B). Option A needs no form changes; Option B keeps attribution alongside the
+rest of the submission if your backend only looks at one payload.
+
+## Option A: add it at submit
+
+Attach the attribution object to the payload yourself in `events.onSubmit` — no changes to the form's fields are
+needed:
+
+```javascript
+const renderer = new FormeoRenderer({
+  renderContainer: '#formeo-renderer',
+  formData,
+  events: {
+    onSubmit: ({ event, userData }) => {
+      event.preventDefault()
+      const attribution = hasAttributionConsent() ? readAttribution() : {}
+      fetch('/submit', {
+        method: 'POST',
+        headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
+        body: JSON.stringify({ ...userData, attribution }),
+      })
+    },
+  },
+})
+renderer.render()
+```
+
+`events.onSubmit` fires with `{ event, form, userData }` — `userData` is already `renderer.userData` read from the
+form at submit time, so nothing else needs computing here.
+
+## Option B: store it in the form
+
+If your backend reads a single flat form POST, add a [Hidden field](../controls/README.md) for each allowlisted key
+you want to capture, and give each one a `name` matching the allowlist exactly (the Hidden control has no default
+`name` — set `attrs.name` on the field, either in the editor's Attributes panel or directly in the field's
+`formData`):
+
+```javascript
+fields: {
+  'attribution-utm-source': {
+    id: 'attribution-utm-source',
+    tag: 'input',
+    attrs: { type: 'hidden', name: 'utm_source', value: '' },
+    config: { label: 'utm_source', hideLabel: true },
+  },
+  // ...one per allowlisted key you want to capture
+}
+```
+
+Fill them in `events.onSubmit`, not right after `render()`. Most consent banners are accepted after the page loads,
+so a check at render time would see no consent and leave the fields empty. The submit handler runs before the browser
+builds the POST body, so values set there go out with the native submit.
+
+Only fill fields the rendered form actually has. This keeps attribution scoped to fields the form author deliberately
+added. It's also independent of how `renderer.userData`'s setter treats a key with no matching field: the setter
+currently skips it and logs one console warning, but don't rely on that warning, and don't rely on it throwing, since
+it never throws:
+
+```javascript
+const renderer = new FormeoRenderer({
+  renderContainer: '#formeo-renderer',
+  formData,
+  events: {
+    onSubmit: ({ form }) => {
+      if (!hasAttributionConsent()) return
+      const present = key => Boolean(form.elements[key])
+      const attribution = readAttribution()
+      renderer.userData = Object.fromEntries(Object.entries(attribution).filter(([key]) => present(key)))
+    },
+  },
+})
+renderer.render()
+```
+
+Filtering with `present()` before assigning means every key is guaranteed to match a field, so the assignment fills
+exactly those hidden fields and nothing else. The filled hidden fields then go out with the rest of the form, whether
+it's a native POST or your own `fetch(form.action, { method: 'POST', body: new FormData(form) })` in the same handler.
+
+## Retention and deletion
+
+How long attribution values are kept, where they're stored, and how a visitor's data is deleted on request are the
+host application's policy — Formeo has no storage of its own to configure. Whatever you choose, don't keep more
+than the allowlist above needs: attribution values only need to answer "where did this submission come from," not
+build a profile of the visitor.
@@ -489,6 +489,12 @@ new FormeoRenderer({
 
 Give the upload field a `name` attribute in the editor to control the key your server receives.
 
+### Consent-aware attribution
+
+Capturing marketing attribution (`utm_source`, `gclid`, and similar) from the URL and adding it to `userData`, only
+after the host app's own consent check passes, is a host-side recipe — see
+[Consent-Aware Attribution](consent-aware-attribution.md).
+
 ## Multi-page forms
 
 Each **stage** in `formData` is one page. Pass the `pagination` option to show them one at a time as tabs or a wizard, instead of all at once in a single `<form>`. Navigation (tabs, the wizard's Previous/Next bar and step list, and page headings) only applies with **2 or more stages** — a single-stage form always renders as before, with no navigation added, except that a Submit button is still appended below it when `submit: true` (see [Options](#options) below).