Cookie Audit - Show your customers that you are protecting their privacy by demonstrating best practice.
Our Cookie audit service at a glance -
- Free assessment of whether you are impacted by the new regulations
- A comprehensive Cookie audit to make you aware of all cookies that your website creates or updates, including social media widgets, third party cookies, session cookies and more
- An assessment of the intrusiveness of your use of cookies
- A solution to make your website compliant with the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011
- Creation of a Privacy Policy for your website
Almost every website uses cookies in some shape or form. Your website will be affected if you use any of the following services -
- Google Analytics or similar analytics, tracking or website optimisation tools
- Any form of "remember my settings" style functionality
- A content management system
- Third-party plugins - such as Facebook Like buttons, Twitter feeds
- YouTube Videos - Even with privacy-enhanced mode. "This mode restricts YouTube's ability to set cookies for a user who views a web page that contains a privacy-enhanced YouTube embed video player, but does not click the video to begin playback. YouTube may still set cookies on the user's computer once the visitor clicks the YouTube video player, but YouTube will not store personally identifiable cookie information for playbacks of embedded videos using the privacy-enhanced mode." YouTube privacy-enhanced mode
On 26 May 2011, the amended Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations came into force in the UK and EU. They include changes to the rules for cookies on websites, and introduce new powers for the Information Commissioner to serve penalties of up to £500,000 on UK companies who break the law.
The rules previously required websites to tell visitors about cookies they used and to provide information about how to "opt out". Most organisations did this by putting information in their privacy policy.
The new rules require in most cases that any website using cookies must ask the user's consent before installing cookies. i.e. that a pop-up box or page asks for the user's permission before installing any type of cookie.
The law now states:
"A person [website] shall not store or gain access to information stored, in the terminal equipment of a subscriber or user unless the requirements of paragraph (2) are met.
(2) The requirements are that the subscriber or user of that terminal equipment--
(a) is provided with clear and comprehensive information about the purposes of the
storage of, or access to, that information; and (b) has given his or her consent."
