If you spend any time online, you may have seen a cookie consent banner and agreed to certain cookies such as analytics or advertising cookies to be placed on your device. You may have also seen a Cookie Policy, which explains the types of cookies that a website uses as well as how you may exercise choices regarding cookies being placed on your device. If you are a website owner, you may be wondering whether your website needs a Cookie Policy and what a Cookie Policy generator even is. To put it simply, a Cookie Policy generator is a software that asks you a series of questions, runs a scan of your website and uses that information to create a Cookie Policy. In this article, we will discuss what a Cookie Policy is, who needs one, and how a Cookie Policy generator can help you limit your liability and reduce the likelihood of fines and even lawsuits.
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What are cookies?
Most of us think of cookies as delicious treats. However, on the Internet, cookies are best described as small pieces of code that are sent from a website and stored on your device by your browser. The purpose of cookies is to track a particular user as they perform a particular activity. For example, cookies may be used to determine any of the following (and more):
- Whether a user is logged into their account on the website;
- Whether a user clicked or saw an advertisement;
- The language preferences of the user;
- How a user ended up on a website or what pages they visited;
- Whether the user saved any items in their shopping cart;
- Whether a user has taken any malicious actions in an attempt to hack the website;
- What videos a user has watched on the website.
While many people believe that cookies are inherently used for advertising and remarketing, as you can see from the above, there are many reasons as to why cookies may be used, which is why they are so frequently installed on websites.
What is a Cookie Policy?
A Cookie Policy is a document that explains the following information to website visitors:
- The classifications of cookies that a website uses (e.g. essential, functional, and marketing);
- The exact cookies that a website uses, including the provider of the cookie, whether it is a first party or a third party cookie, the purpose of the cookie and how long the cookie will be stored on a user’s device;
- How an individual can exercise their choices regarding cookies and how they can control their cookie choices;
- Who the individual should contact if they have any questions about your usage of cookies.
A Cookie Policy is meant to provide information as to the cookies on a particular website so that the user can make an informed choice as to whether or not they would like to consent to certain cookies.
Do you need a Cookie Policy?
The truth is that not all websites need a Cookie Policy. First, while it is very unlikely, if your website does not use any cookies whatsoever, you will not need a Cookie Policy because you do not need to present information regarding cookies as none are used on your website.
On the other hand, if your website does use cookies, you will need a Cookie Policy if you need to comply with the following privacy laws:
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR);
- United Kingdom Data Protection Act (UK DPA);
- ePrivacy Directive;
- Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA); or
- California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA);
- California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA).
If you are unsure as to whether you need to comply with any of the above privacy laws or whether you need a cookie consent banner or Cookie Policy, the Termageddon questionnaire will actually provide you with a recommendation as to whether or not your website should have one during the Privacy Policy generation process.
What is a Cookie Policy generator?
Now that you know what a Cookie Policy is, you may be wondering whether you need a Cookie Policy generator to obtain one. A Cookie Policy generator is a software tool that asks you a series of questions regarding the use of cookies on your website and will use that information to create a Cookie Policy. A good Cookie Policy generator will include a scan that detects and pre-populates a list of the cookies used on your website so that you do not have to guess as to what those cookies are or spend hours inputting this information into the generator. A good Cookie Policy generator will also allow you to re-scan the website and will automatically populate new or changed cookies into your Cookie Policy.
If you do not currently have a Cookie Policy or have not updated yours in a while, make sure to check out the Termageddon Cookie Policy generator.
