If you are reading this, chances are you've been hearing a lot about cookies, GDPR and ePrivacy. And yes, it can be confusing and even frustrating at times, we know. But if you have a website these days, you should be familiar with those terms and there's no way around it. That is why we did our best to collect everything you need to know on the subject in a single, simply written article. Hopefully it can help you make more informed decisions about your website.
You have probably noticed that since May 2018, a notification shows in nearly every website you visit for the first time. It informs you that the website collects information using cookies and asks you to allow that. But what exactly does that mean?
Cookies are small text files that websites place on your device as you are browsing. They are processed and stored by the web browser. Cookies are essential for every website to function properly, improve user experience and collect data for marketing and statistics purposes. If you consent to the Cookies policy, you agree on being tracked while browsing or having your data saved for the next time you visit the website. However, by law every website user must have the right to choose their “cookie preferences”. Besides some exceptions described later in this article, user data can't be collected or used without the user’s consent.
There are three classes of cookies, depending on their specifications:
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) does not say much about the cookies:
“Natural persons may be associated with online identifiers provided by their devices, applications, tools and protocols, such as internet protocol addresses, cookie identifiers or other identifiers such as radio frequency identification tags. This may leave traces which, in particular when combined with unique identifiers and other information received by the servers, may be used to create profiles of the natural persons and identify them.”
Simply put, this means that companies do have a right to collect and process personal data, as long as they get consent or they have legitimate interest.
As a website owner, violation of GDPR may cost you a fortune, so it is essential that you don’t collect data illegally.
The purpose of the ePrivacy directive, also known as the Cookie law, is to secure the user’s privacy through data protection. It is all about what companies, website owners and service providers can do with your consent and what they are not allowed to do without it.
Unfortunately, a lot of the websites only inform you that they use cookies and the single choice left to the user is “OK”, meaning that your data will be used in any case.
If you are a website owner, you must make sure that the following requirements are covered by your website’s cookie extension:
Many companies have already suffered the consequences of cookies not being compliant. While some websites only get a request for adding the cookie pop-up, others get fines which are not to something to underestimate. Besides, your website’s visitors thrust you when they visit your website - why punish them by stealing their data?
Now that you’re aware of how important cookies and their proper use are, you have no excuse but to make sure you are all set cookie-wise. The good news is that we at boldit.studio have a solution to that and if we are going to build your website, it will be 100% cookie-proof. Because, well, we love cookies 🙂
“People have got to learn: if they don't have cookies in the cookie jar, they can't eat cookies.”
~ Suze Orman, personal finance expert
