France’s data protection authority, CNIL recently imposed heavy sanctions on Google and Amazon. The french websites of the tech giants were found to be violating the cookie consent requirements of the French Data Protection Act (FDPA). They were fined a whopping $165 million for the infringements!
It is not surprising since the CNIL had sanctioned Google in 2019 to pay $61 million for violating GDPR transparency requirements. Talk about not learning your lesson.
Cookie consent and compliance have been at the center of the GDPR discussion. All that despite being mentioned only once in the official GDPR document!
CookieYes has been providing cookie consent solutions for GDPR compliance for the past three years and has gained the trust of many websites around the globe.
Let us look into some information about cookie consent and how CookieYes can help you achieve cookie compliance.
What exactly is GDPR?
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a Europe-wide law that was implemented on May 25, 2018. It aims to protect the data and privacy of the European Union (EU) residents. The territorial scope of the regulation is so wide that it stirred the entire digital world. The organization in or outside the EU member states are subject to GDPR compliance if they serve EU residents. By serving, it means collecting the personal data of the EU residents and using it for business purposes.
The consequences of non-compliance are not small, as you may have already comprehended. For GDPR, the maximum fine may go up to $24.6 million or 4% of the annual global turnover of the organization — whichever is higher. The fines are decided based on the nature and severity of the violation. They are applied in addition to or instead of strict actions or correction orders.
What is cookie consent, and why is everyone talking about it?
Cookies do not need much introduction since most Internet users must have come across them. Especially in the recent few years, most websites have started using cookie notices. But what does it have to do with the GDPR?
Cookies may have found their way to the GDPR document only once, but it has an important place. Cookie identifiers, as mentioned in the GDPR, collect the personal data of users through the websites. This makes you liable to comply with GDPR if you use cookies on your website.
In any situation where the website requires to collect and process the users’ personal data, you need their prior consent. So, to use cookies (that observe user behavior or collect personal data), you need the users’ consent.
Cookie consent, thus, has become quite a big concern among webmasters. You must have seen cookie notice popping up on most websites.
To use cookies on your website, you must inform the users about the cookies (especially their purpose) and get their consent to store them on user devices. Unless the users give their consent, the website cannot load the cookies. Also, they should be able to withdraw consent at any time.
You can only skip the consent requirement if your reason for collecting personal data has one of the other GDPR lawful bases for processing.
It is not just the GDPR that has made its stand on cookie consent. Privacy laws like CCPA, DPA 2018, PECR, and ePrivacy Directive also mandate to seek user consent before using non-essential cookies.
Any website that looks forward to giving its users a safe and secure browsing experience must adhere to the cookie consent requirements (and other requirements per the laws).
Keep calm and use CookieYes’ cookie consent solution!
Everything we have discussed so far may seem a bit too much to grasp. Making your website GDPR compliant for cookies is not a walk in the park. It is a complicated process. But do not worry! That is why we have developed CookieYes to make your life a tad bit less complicated (because there are other things to be worried about in life).
CookieYes is a cloud-based SaaS that offers an all-in-one cookie consent solution for your website. You can deploy an easily customizable cookie consent banner on your website using a simple script. Choose the color and style of the banner that suits your site the best. You can even select the banner type and language per your website requirement.
As the GDPR and other laws require, you can add the necessary cookie information and give consent options (accept and reject).
CookieYes also scans the website for cookies and automatically blocks third-party cookies (non-essential) before the users record their consent. It also keeps a log of all the consent statuses obtained from the users with their IP addresses. It helps in demonstrating proof of consent, if necessary.
Over 900,000 websites worldwide use CookieYes and GDPR Cookie Consent plugin (powered by CookieYes). We have a long list of reputed clients, with names like IAB Europe, that have trusted us with their websites for GDPR cookie compliance.
CookieYes set up process is easy and seamless. We have a dedicated support team to answer any questions. Here is a video to walk you through the process:
Sign up today for a 14-day trial and enjoy premium features for free!
Cookie consent is not a joke
Cookie violations are not going to cease so soon. More and more such cases will come up. Big names will find themselves in a bad light. Smaller websites/organizations will have to painfully bear the consequences (whatever it may be) and be careful in the future. The moral of all this — privacy regulations aren’t a joke. Take it seriously.
