Traversing the post-GDPR internet is a riot of cookie acceptance, rejection and even (for the stout hearted) management. Every website that uses these often essential (but occasionally downright snoopy) tiny lines of software code should, by law, offer you the chance to view the website unencumbered by their presence.
The old way…
For a time, we took the view that telling people what cookies we used and how to delete them in their browser was a sufficiently friendly approach - after all, none of our websites run anything intrusive such as personalised advertising. The only cookies we were running were either essential or analytical - allowing us to report on traffic and conversion statistics to our clients, but not actually identifying anyone.
The new way…
More recently, it has come to pass that a more robust approach to cookie management is required, and that visitors to a website must consent to having cookies used at all. So we are rolling out a cookie management banner across our client websites to make sure they are in keeping with current personal data protection and privacy laws.
Some implications…
Inevitably, some people will choose to reject analytics cookies, and this will mean some loss of website traffic data - we will know that someone has visited the website but not precisely what actions they have taken once there. Google is trialling a new process called ‘consent mode’ which tracks a user without identifying them and algorithmically calculates their activity based on known quantities and what amounts to a very good ‘best guess’. But nobody is quite sure how this will play out.
The future…?
With the Covid pandemic dominating the news, you’ll be forgiven for not taking the time to read the 130 page independent report from the Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform Taskforce: a deregulation report released by Conservative MPs George Freeman, Ian Duncan Smith and Theresa Villiers. In it, they set out their vision for data deregulation, rolling back GDPR, and generally making personal data the kind of free-for-all for advertisers and insurance companies that it is in the United States. This was presented as: “No more annoying cookie banners!” The whole thing’s worth a read if you are interested.
Our promise…
We will always be fair and honest with our cookie policy. Websites developed by RWD use the bare minimum of these tools and we do not capture unnecessary personal data. We do take note of what people do on aggregate - so that we can report how many contacts the website has generated - but not who is doing what. We report on the visit, not the visitor, if that makes sense.
Any client on one of our retainer packages gets updates like this applied as and when needed. They don’t need to stay abreast of the latest changes in data privacy law and its application, we take care of that for them then make any relevant improvements. If you would like to know more about our services, get in touch. You can call the office on 01603 632552 or email info@rwd.group
