#cookie tool

Since the dawn of the internet, cookies have been marketers' and advertisers' mantra to understand their online user's behavior to help sell them better products and services. 

But as things become more valuable, they are bound to be exploited. 

Before data privacy laws came into action, many businesses collected, processed, and even shared/sold the personal data of millions of customers without their consent. 

Result? 

Google has been accused of selling user data for advertising purposes without user consent. 

Until 2018, Facebook shared user data with third-party companies without explicit user consent. 

Amazon has been accused of using consumer data to boost its retail business without permission. 

Microsoft was accused of using consumer data to target ads to users without consent. 

These companies, though highly profitable, have been in damage control ever since. Not only the big tech companies, eCommerce brands like Sephora, Decathlon, and Jo & Joe, have also exploited cookie consent by sharing data unlawfully. People have become more conscious of sharing personal information with businesses.

Since GDPR came into effect, it has come down heavily on businesses that violated the ePrivacy Directive, colloquially called the cookie law. 

The EU's cookie law requires you to: 

Block all cookies and similar trackers until the user's explicit consent to their deployment. 

Inform the end-users clear and comprehensive understanding of all cookies and trackers embedded in your domain in a simple, laymen's language. 

Request users for consent to all cookies and trackers in use on your domain in as friendly a way as possible. 

Give end-users the right to refuse or withdraw consent as quickly as possible. 

But before all this, you need to know just one thing. 

Why and how will cookie consent drive profits for your business? 

"Data is costlier than oil."  

~ Economic times 

You would agree with me on this one. 

Every marketer and advertiser's dream is to make that one content or ad copy that will triple the company's revenue in a snap. But you need to know what works with your customers to do that. And for that, you know what you need! Data. 

The advent of privacy laws restricts you from collecting and processing personal data until the user consents to it. But that's the way forward for businesses. 

If you want data, respecting your customer's privacy is what GDPR and other data privacy laws wish to out of you. 

But complying with data privacy laws has enormous benefits that companies must capitalize on. 

Compliance with laws and regulations: SMBs must ensure they comply with their respective cookie regulations, such as the GDPR in Europe, to avoid costly fines.  

User experience: Providing a comprehensive cookie notice and allowing users to opt out of cookies easily helps improve the user experience and makes it more likely that users will stay on a website. 

Data security: Storing cookie data on a user's device properly can help protect the information from being accessed by malicious actors. 

Targeted content and advertising: Cookies allow businesses to provide targeted content and advertising to users, which can help increase conversions. 

Improved website performance: Cookies can be used to enhance a website's performance, as they store vital information such as user settings and preferences, which can help speed up loading times. 

Understanding user behavior: Cookies provide valuable insight into user behavior, which can be used to optimize the website for better user engagement. 

Improved customer service: Knowing the user's behavior can help businesses provide better customer service, as they can personalize the experience and address customer issues more effectively. 

Additional insights: Cookies can provide further insights into user behavior, such as which pages they view, how long they stay on the page, and what actions they take. 

Enhanced tracking: Cookies allow for improved monitoring of user data, which can be used for analytics, attribution, and remarketing purposes. 

Security and privacy: Cookies can help ensure user security and privacy by encrypting the data stored on their device and making sure it is only accessible to those with the correct credentials 

Adzapier's Cookie Consent: Building Customer lifetime value 

Adzapier eases over complex cookie compliance in a few clicks so that you can focus on your business. 

Three reasons why Adzapier's cookie consent will help marketers and advertisers to increase consent opt-in rates and time spent on the website to enhance user experience. 

Consent Recording: Not only prove your compliance with data privacy but also understand how your customer interacts with your website with session recording that legally records the user's consent and web session on the website. 

Geo-location Targeting: Users from different privacy laws will be automatically provided with relevant cookie consent banners complying with the respective cookie law. This helps to enhance consent opt-ins while maintaining cookie compliance with international privacy laws. 

GDPR Auto cookie blocking: Be compliant with the world's stringent privacy law by blocking all unnecessary cookies until the user consents to cookie use through an affirmative action (like clicking ‘accept cookies’ on a consent banner) 

Since the French Data privacy watchdog CNIL and the Irish Data protection commission DPC fined TikTok and Facebook for using shady cookie consent practices, companies worldwide are growing wary of their business compliance.

Cookie law, or the ePrivacy Directive, was first enacted in 2002 and later amended in 2009 and has since been the chief regulator of electronic privacy, including email marketing and cookie usage in the EU territory. It has added extra layers of compliance to an already well-established Data privacy law, GDPR, i.e., General Data Protection Regulation.

Data privacy laws have become highly dynamic, keeping businesses up with the ever-evolving data privacy world. It is time for them to check their cookie consent compliance and rethink because it's more important than ever to do so.

Businesses in America after GDPR: What do they need to do?

It was a moment of joy and victory for the European people when the European Union established the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018.

But American businesses were concerned about how they would still be able to advertise and market products and services without data collection through cookies.

Since the dawn of the Internet, cookies and other trackers, such as pixels tags, device fingerprinting, and unique identifiers, have been used to collect personal data, which included login credentials, shopping carts, wish lists, user behavior, and much more. This data is later processed and used for targeted ads and remarketing of products and services.

Businesses could trick the user's behavior through data by providing personalized messaging and behavioral adverts.

But there has been one particular reason behind the worldwide awakening of privacy rights and data activism.

If companies were to use customer data to be able to remarket or advertise their products, then it would have been fine. But most companies sell the personal data of individuals, without their consent, to other companies. This became a huge problem.

Cookie consent: where does your business fail

Even though companies understood that they had only one option to collect personal data if they complied with Data privacy laws such as GDPR and CCPA, they still needed to abide by the provisions laid down entirely.

Under GDPR, a website or an app must not load cookies and trackers onto the user's device unless they have given consent through a cookie consent banner. Also, consent under GDPR should be given freely, informed, specific, and unambiguous.

Businesses know that no user will give their data without consent, and people are likelier to click "Reject" if given an option. So, companies have been trying to bypass the GDPR and the cookie law with dark cookie consent practices.

Dark Practice #1:

Many business entities are still not very transparent about how they use cookies to collect and process personal data.

They have developed a complicated privacy policy or cookie policy, which needs to clarify more about why data has been collected and how it will be used.

They link these pages in their cookie banner to get the user to read the privacy policy, which doesn't make much sense.

Dark Practice #2:

Another way businesses try to manipulate users into giving their data is by having a cookie banner, which confuses the user by not providing clarity about the cookie usage or by not giving a "Reject" button.

Apart from that, they use dark design psychology, which induces customers to click on the accept all link.

Dark Practice #3:

GDPR has strict requirements that cookie banners must have an opt-out consent too.

Many companies, even when the user declines the use of cookies on their devices, run JavaScript and other trackers on the user's devices, collecting and processing personal data illicitly. The cookie banner remains nothing but an inoperative placeholder.

Also, one of the major requirements of GDPR that businesses fail to comply with is the authentic proof or record of consent given by the user to the business through the cookie consent banner.

Data audits and cybersecurity are the primary reasons a company is levied with heavy fines and penalties. As significant data privacy laws and amendments are heavily invested in increasing data security issues, data security is a critical factor that businesses must pay attention to.

If you want to avoid all the melodrama, keep reading!

Cookie consent: You can't ignore it anymore!

$3 Billion!

That's the total sum of fines paid till Jan 2023. This includes all kinds of significant penalties from big techs like Google and Amazon to small-medium enterprises.

This results from non-compliance or bypassing the EU's GDPR and ePrivacy Directive, aka Cookie Law.

As per the reports of TechHq, 95% of American businesses are yet to comply with GDPR, and 90% are yet to comply with CPRA. Now, these are worrisome figures.

Non-compliance means only two things to you:

Financial penalties

Brand reputation (most damaging)

In today's hyper-transparent world, where every customer knows about a company as well as they know their friends, trust is the most significant competitive advantage a brand can have. And to do this, you must show people you are trustworthy.

Staying in compliance with local and global laws is key.

A quick guide to cookie compliance:

Let them know about your cookies.

The first step to building privacy compliance and consumer trust is transparency. This means that a user must know what cookies you have, their purpose, and what happens to their data after they consent. Provide them with a blueprint of what all your business does regarding personal data.

Acknowledge user cookie consent with a cookie consent banner. Display all the cookies to be used in the settings section and let them know your purpose for personal data collection.

How do you want users to give consent?

Following the GDPR consent model, you need a cookie consent banner with opt-in, opt-out, and auto cookie-blocking features.

If a user wants you to use cookies on their devices, it is called opt-in consent, wherein they click the "Accept" button.

If a user doesn't want you to use cookies to collect their data, then he should be provided with a "Reject" button. This is known as the opt-out method. With that, also provide a "Change Preference" button if the user wants only specific cookies to be used on-site. They must be able to turn off advertising cookies if they wish to website/app owners must abide by that.

One of the most crucial requirements under GDPR is to block all nonessential cookies until the user gives their consent. Businesses are often guilty of deploying unnecessary cookies, such as advertising and analytic cookies, before the user gives consent. Under GDPR, failure to follow this provision will attract heavy fines.

Adzapier Consent Management: Compliance in a Single Solution

Even if you decide to build a GDPR-compliant cookie consent banner by yourself, which will be tedious and a little costly, what you surely can't do manually is keep a record of all the consent.

You need a cookie consent management platform like Adzapier.

We provide the code. You don’t have to figure it out yourself. All you need to do is input our code into the backend, and your website will comply with the world's strictest data privacy law. Isn't that a smart thing to do?

Adzapier's Consent management helps brands to build a personalized cookie banner that suits your brand's style. But it also ensures that your brand is safe and secure by complying with your business's stringent privacy laws like GDPR and CPRA.

Our geo-tagging features help find the user's location so that a relevant cookie consent banner is served, complying with the data privacy law of the region where the user is accessing your website.

We provide auto-cookie blocking, which blocks all nonessential cookies until the user gives consent, which is mandatory under GDPR. We also provide session recording, which only a few data compliance platforms have in the market.

Session recording records the users’ consent, saving you time and energy to prove to the data compliance audits and cyber security cells in the wake of DSARs.

On December 29, 2022, CNIL (French Data Protection Agency) sanctioned 5 million Euros in a fine against the social networking site Tiktok. 

The French data privacy watchdog found TikTok breaching obligations to article 82 of the Data Protection Act. The social media giant attempted to exploit the cookie consent laws. Here’s what happened: 

In June 2021, CNIL checked TikTok and found that the company immediately offered a button to ‘accept’ cookies. However, it did not give users an easy opt-out option. The problem was that TikTok users needed several clicks to reject, while they could accept the cookies with a single click. 

In the trial, the CNIL committee concluded that TikTok made the refusal process more difficult than accepting cookies, encouraging internet users to favor the “accept all cookies” button. The process is heinous and violates the freedom of consent for organizational gain.  

As of February 2022, TikTok has implemented a “refuse all” button on its website and addressed the cookie-policy transparency issue. A Spokesperson for the Chinese company said that the French Data Protection authority’s sanction “relates to past practices.” Furthermore, TikTok is now making it much easier to reject non-essential cookies.”  

The CNIL trial focused only on TikTok’s website and not its mobile app. Therefore, the company must avoid implementing tricky cookie consent management practices on its mobile app. 

A Carnival of Data Privacy Sanctions 

During the last year, many big companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta underwent trials for breaching consumer data security rights.  

Meta had been under scrutiny for breaching consumer data protection laws since 2008. The company suffered trials for trespassing the cookie consent regulations and unauthorized sharing of customer data with third parties.  

Amazon came into sight of the EU data privacy commission for exploiting its market power. Following complaints from several traders, the EU penalized Amazon for leveraging the data collected by companies that rely on its marketplace. In the UK, the eCommerce giant was found ‘harming’ its customers by directing them towards ‘featured offers.’ The trick was alluring customers to go for hidden deals and pay more for products.  

By the end of 2022, Amazon had been at trial for over a dozen lawsuits and lost billions of dollars in fines.   

By the end of 2022, Google agreed to a record $391.5 million settlement with a 40-state coalition of attorneys general. Charges against the company were that it misled users into thinking that turning off the ‘location tracking’ feature on their browser would stop Google from collecting information. However, the company violated consumer laws by tracing user information even after inactivating the ‘location tracking’ feature. As of 2023, the company promises to make its ‘location tracking’ disclosures more transparent for internet users. 

In March 2022, Apple Inc. agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit for false advertising and breach of consumer trust. According to advertisements, Apple hosts its iCloud subscriber data in an independent cloud infrastructure. However, the company only sometimes relied on independent cloud storage. Occasionally, Apple would use third-party cloud services for storing data without customer consent.  The lawsuit settled at $14 million, and Apple now shares a list of all third-party cloud servers in its iCloud legal Agreement.  

Twitter followed other tech companies in the ‘data breach carnival.’ A settlement of $AU 208 million was made between the company and the Australian data regulators for (alleged) misrepresentation of security and privacy. 

Fashion retailer and online clothing brand H&M was under scrutiny for keeping excessive records of its employees’ families. The brand was accused of spying on personal information while saying it was for employee evaluation purposes. Following the lawsuit, H&M took full responsibility for the actions and agreed to pay a fine of $AU 57 million. 

A Message for Other businesses 

Any business that collects, processes, and shares customer data (for advertising or other purposes) is responsible for safeguarding consumer privacy rights. Not abiding by data protection laws can cause colossal reputational and financial damage to businesses.  

Huge brands like Google, Meta, and H&M may have the resources and time for exhaustive and expensive lawsuits. However, growing businesses cannot afford to stand against lawsuits.  

Data privacy laws safeguard consumer rights. Therefore, they are non-discriminatory. Regardless of size, businesses must always follow data privacy laws. Even small and medium-sized enterprises must comply with data protection laws.  

Privacy Compliance: Best Practices 

Staying compliant is crucial for businesses dealing with consumers protected by various data protection laws worldwide. Following is a list of Best Practices that businesses can follow to stay on the safe side: 

Check Cookie Use 

Ensuring which cookies a website (or mobile app) uses is the first step of privacy compliance. Using a cookie tool for identifying the number (and types) of cookies on a website (or mobile app) allows cookie categorization. Having pre-defined cookie categories makes collecting cookie consent easy for the website (or mobile app) user.    

Ensure Consent Management  

Businesses must always ensure they send out clear messages regarding their cookie use and data collection policies. Websites and mobile applications should say whether they would collect, share, and process customer data. Companies must also mention how they would use customer data and what third parties they would share the information with.  

Companies should incorporate cookie consent banners (or other means) to help collect and manage consumer data preferences.  

Check Cookie Compliance 

Making sure your business follows data regulations is the best way to avoid hefty lawsuits. Ensuring cookie compliance is a simple process; however, if not taken seriously, it can land businesses in trouble.  

What Can Businesses Do? 

Staying in compliance with data protection laws is easy for businesses that undertake a failproof consent management policy. Therefore, you must take early action and check your cookie compliance now!