Is your website GDPR compliant?

I feel like I should start by apologising for bringing up the topic of GDPR as I know it’s not the most interesting of topics and we’re all sick of hearing about it.

BUT did you know that the Data Protection Commission is planning on clamping down on websites with inadequate Cookie and Privacy management

COVID may have slowed this down slightly, but they will be proceeding with their plan to check how websites are performing on this and with penalties for those who are not compliant.

Do you know what your website needs to do in order to be GDPR compliant?

There are 2 pieces to this: Cookies and Privacy.

Cookie Management for GDPR

To put it simply, cookies are tiny files that are stored on your computer by a website that you visit. They perform a variety of functions, from allowing the website to function correctly, gather statistics, or for marketing purposes.

Cookies are the reason the product you viewed on Amazon proceeds to follow you around the internet!

The requirements are simple but implementation is not as straightforward as we thought.

The previous thinking on cookies was that we needed to display a message indicating that the website used cookies and informing the visitor that their use of the site implied consent to those cookies.

This approach differs in a number of ways from the current requirements.

1. We must inform our visitors of WHAT cookies we are using, and what they are used for.
2. We must obtain explicit consent from a visitor to the site for the use of those cookies, implied consent is no longer acceptable.
3. Best practice means we should also display categories for the list of cookies, and allow consent on a category basis.

Privacy Management for GDPR

It is absolutely essential that you have a comprehensive privacy policy on your website, outlining the information that you capture, how you store it, and where you will (or will not!) use it.

This gives your customers peace of mind, as well as complying with regulations, so it is well worth the effort.

How can we help?

The good news is that the plugin we use to set up GDPR compliance does most of the work for you. The plugin will scan your site for cookies and generate a comprehensive cookie policy page with an itemised list.

The consent banner requires explicit consent and allows the user to consent on a category basis – so they can accept functional cookies only or also consent to statistical/marketing cookies, or simply “accept all”.

We are offering 10% off our GDPR Compliance setup for 1 week from today