In July 2026 we opened eight european news sites in a real in-market browser - not a headless one - and counted the ad-tracking hosts that fired at three moments: before touching the consent banner, after "Accept" and after "Reject". Five of the eight were already loading ad-trackers before any consent choice existed. One fired 30 ad-tracking hosts before something was touched at all. One loaded more trackers after "Reject" than after "Accept". https://lumotraq.com/insights/pre-consent-tracking