Are you collecting cookies correctly?
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 9:42 am
Functional cookies are necessary for analytics tools to work on your website, for example your Google Analytics and Hotjar tools.
Performance cookies collect information anonymously to improve website performance and cannot be used to identify you. The information collected includes website usage statistics as well as third-party analytics services. This information is not shared and is exclusive to the owner of the relevant website.
Marketing cookies record your visit to a website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. They are used to make website content and advertising more personalized to your interests. Your data may also be shared with third parties for this purpose. For example, the Facebook pixel, which allows website visitors to be retargeted on Facebook.
Here are some of the latest GDPR updates (not all) regarding consent and cookie vp administration email database management:
You should be able to say no as easily as you can say yes.
You should be able to withdraw consent as easily as you give it.
Cookies must be classified and described
The cookie mechanism must not block access
A record of cookie selections should be kept
Pre-checked boxes are not "freely given" consent.
A cookie notice that says "by using this site, you agree to cookies" is not valid consent.
Fines for non-compliance with GDPR
For less serious cases, Article 83.4 of the GDPR provides for fines of up to "€10 million or, in the case of an undertaking, up to 2% of its total global turnover for the preceding financial year, whichever is higher."
For more serious cases, Article 83(5) of the GDPR, the maximum fine can be up to "€20 million or, in the case of an undertaking, up to 4% of its total global turnover for the preceding financial year, whichever is higher."
However, fines are handled on a case-by-case basis, so even the maximum fine may be higher than the one mentioned above. More about fines here.
Does the GDPR only target large companies? No!
You may have read about famous cases such as the €746 million fine imposed on Amazon or the €225 million fine imposed on WhatsApp. But these are large companies and these fines are nothing more than a slap in the face.
For example, Secure Home Systems Ltd., a small UK home security and CCTV provider, was fined £80,000 for making unsolicited phone calls to numbers they had acquired through a third-party data provider, but failed to exercise due diligence to ensure consent was linked.
Is GDPR compliance easy?
Now that you know what you need to do to comply with the GDPR, while it may seem like a lot, it's actually very easy to do it correctly with Serviceform's GDPR Cookie Controller.
But first things first, you need to find out what kind of cookies your website collects, whether you are doing so correctly, and whether you need a cookie compliance tool. To do this, you can use our Cookie Checker: https://www.serviceform.com/cookie-checker.
The tool will look for the most common cookies, and only from your home page.
Try Serviceform's GDPR Cookie Controller
Let us take care of the cookies. Serviceform's Cookie Controller is approved by lawyers, constantly updated with the latest GDPR, and can be translated into any language. If you want to see it in action, book an appointment with our chatbot to test out the Cookie Controller!
The only cookies worth going crazy over are those delicious double chocolate cookies your grandma used to make
Performance cookies collect information anonymously to improve website performance and cannot be used to identify you. The information collected includes website usage statistics as well as third-party analytics services. This information is not shared and is exclusive to the owner of the relevant website.
Marketing cookies record your visit to a website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. They are used to make website content and advertising more personalized to your interests. Your data may also be shared with third parties for this purpose. For example, the Facebook pixel, which allows website visitors to be retargeted on Facebook.
Here are some of the latest GDPR updates (not all) regarding consent and cookie vp administration email database management:
You should be able to say no as easily as you can say yes.
You should be able to withdraw consent as easily as you give it.
Cookies must be classified and described
The cookie mechanism must not block access
A record of cookie selections should be kept
Pre-checked boxes are not "freely given" consent.
A cookie notice that says "by using this site, you agree to cookies" is not valid consent.
Fines for non-compliance with GDPR
For less serious cases, Article 83.4 of the GDPR provides for fines of up to "€10 million or, in the case of an undertaking, up to 2% of its total global turnover for the preceding financial year, whichever is higher."
For more serious cases, Article 83(5) of the GDPR, the maximum fine can be up to "€20 million or, in the case of an undertaking, up to 4% of its total global turnover for the preceding financial year, whichever is higher."
However, fines are handled on a case-by-case basis, so even the maximum fine may be higher than the one mentioned above. More about fines here.
Does the GDPR only target large companies? No!
You may have read about famous cases such as the €746 million fine imposed on Amazon or the €225 million fine imposed on WhatsApp. But these are large companies and these fines are nothing more than a slap in the face.
For example, Secure Home Systems Ltd., a small UK home security and CCTV provider, was fined £80,000 for making unsolicited phone calls to numbers they had acquired through a third-party data provider, but failed to exercise due diligence to ensure consent was linked.
Is GDPR compliance easy?
Now that you know what you need to do to comply with the GDPR, while it may seem like a lot, it's actually very easy to do it correctly with Serviceform's GDPR Cookie Controller.
But first things first, you need to find out what kind of cookies your website collects, whether you are doing so correctly, and whether you need a cookie compliance tool. To do this, you can use our Cookie Checker: https://www.serviceform.com/cookie-checker.
The tool will look for the most common cookies, and only from your home page.
Try Serviceform's GDPR Cookie Controller
Let us take care of the cookies. Serviceform's Cookie Controller is approved by lawyers, constantly updated with the latest GDPR, and can be translated into any language. If you want to see it in action, book an appointment with our chatbot to test out the Cookie Controller!
The only cookies worth going crazy over are those delicious double chocolate cookies your grandma used to make