Website GDPR cookie compliance [UPDATE]

Cookie warning pop up messages are now featured on most websites we visit. Many people find them annoying. After all, who actually reads them?

However, they are VERY important and therefore it is essential to check if your website uses cookies (clue: most do) and what you need to do, to ensure your website is compliant.

The Cookie Law was designed to protect privacy online by making visitors aware that information about them is being collected when they visit a website, and provide them with a choice of whether to allow it or not.

This now forms part of online privacy laws and GDPR, and it is very important for businesses to comply with these laws. Unfortunately, many do not and failure to do so may lead to fines.

Almost all website use cookies. A cookie is a very small data files that collect data about users browsing habits.

Many websites do not have a popup warning about Cookies at all. Or if they do, they do not allow the user to provide consent to cookies being used or control what cookies are used.

For GDPR level consent, cookie warnings must be specific, informed and involve a positive action from the user to provide consent. Allowing visitors to continue using a website, is not sufficient evidence of consent.

There are different types of cookies. Some are essential or necessary for a website to work and be usable. These types of cookies do not need a user’s consent. For example, a cookie to remember what items a user has placed in a shopping basket is considered essential to the functionality of the website.

However, if a website uses cookies for analytics (or cookies that remember a user when they return to the website) then they are not considered essential, and these types of cookies should not be used without the user first providing their consent with a positive action.

If a website uses something like Google Analytics or the Facebook tracking pixel, then they are using non-essential cookies and require consent from the user.

Adding a cookie consent popup to your website (and not just a warning message that the website uses cookies) will help ensure the website is compliant.

If you take a look at the in.house.media website and click the cookie icon at the bottom left of the screen, you will be able to see how cookies are blocked unless the users accepts them. Go to www.ihm.co.uk

This uses a cookie consent plugin from https://cookie-script.com/. Visit this for further information about website compliance.

We encourage you to check your website to decide if it is compliant with the relevant privacy laws. If you feel that a consent popup message is required on your website, please contact us at support@ihm.co.uk and we will help, although we are not qualified to provide legal advice.

 

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