Do you know what cookies your website is using?

We cannot provide legal advice, and recommend consulting qualified legal counsel regarding your specific business and data processing situation.

However, if your website collects the personal data of customers or visitors that reside in a country or region like the UK or EU protected by data privacy regulations (which includes the majority of the world now) especially if that data is shared or sold, then you most likely do need one. Small websites can need a cookie consent solution as much as a huge company’s website or ecommerce operation does.

Many privacy laws are designed to protect the personal data of residents of the region covered by the privacy policy, e.g. California or the European Union. Many of these laws are also “extraterritorial”, which means that if you process the personal data of users from those places, you have data privacy responsibilities under those regulations. It does not matter if you, your company, or your hosting is based in any of those places.

Every website, blog or ecommerce shop is different, so there is no specific list of cookies that every site uses.

Scan your website for free and get a list of all the cookies and other tracking technologies in use on your website. Then, if you install the Cookiebot CMP, you can automatically block use of those cookies and trackers until you obtain valid user consent, depending on which privacy regulations you need to comply with.

You can also use the comprehensive list of the cookies in use on your WordPress website to populate your Privacy Policy to provide the accurate and required information to users about your data processing activities.

This is very unlikely. These days, most websites use cookies of some kind or another. In addition to being used to track and collect data about users, they are also used to make websites work correctly, enable proper function of shopping carts, and serve ads. Some of them can be used without needing to obtain user consent, but many cannot under privacy regulations using an “opt in” model.

We cannot provide legal advice, and recommend consulting qualified legal counsel regarding your specific business and data processing situation. However, your website is likely already using cookies and needs to continue to do so. If your website uses cookies that collect the personal data of customers or visitors that reside in a country or region protected by data privacy regulations, especially if that data is shared or sold, then you may very well need a cookie compliance solution like a Consent Management Platform (CMP). Small blogs can need a cookie compliance solution as much as a huge company’s website or ecommerce operation does.

If your website is hosted by a third-party company, or if you use plugins, social media or analytics tools, etc., then you are setting cookies and collecting user data that is potentially personal data.

Personal data is information from or about people that can identify them. On websites it could include anything from name, email address, or credit card number, which a user could provide, to information that cookies collect, like IP address and browsing activities.

Every website is different, so there is no specific list of cookies that every site uses.

However, cookies can be used for many things. There are “strictly necessary cookies that are essential to enable users to browse your website and use its features. This can include everything from enabling access to secured areas of the site to keeping items in a shopping cart. There are also cookies that enhance user experience, like saving language preferences or detecting where they are in the world, which, for example, enables display of relevant data privacy regulation information. There are also cookies used for marketing or analytics, that track user activities and behaviors to learn what they do and their preferences, which can be used for targeted advertising and other purposes.

It is common with data privacy regulations that require “opt in” consent that user consent must be obtained before any cookies other than strictly necessary ones are used. The Cookiebot CMP scans your website, and this test tells you exactly which cookies and other tracking technologies are in use on your site, and what they’re for. It also controls cookie usage on your website until that consent is obtained where that is required by law.

The Cookiebot CMP scans your website to tell you exactly which cookies and other tracking technologies are in use on your site, and what they’re for. It also works as an informal test of whether your website’s use is privacy compliant or not. This information can also be used in your Privacy Policy to notify users.

The cookie checker, and by extension the Cookiebot CMP, enable you to know what cookies are essential to the website working correctly (which are unlikely to require consent), and which are not essential, thus potentially requiring user consent before they are used. It also blocks usage of those cookies on your website until valid user consent is obtained for them, depending on relevant data privacy laws.

Using the cookie checker is a great first step toward privacy compliance, and using the Cookiebot CMP also demonstrates transparency and respect for users’ privacy and consent choices, which builds trust and encourages higher user engagement and long-term relationships, in addition to protecting you from data privacy violations and fines.

Under the GDPR, legal bases or the “lawfulness of processing” are legally acceptable reasons for companies or other organizations to collect and process personal data.

User consent is one legal basis, though the GDPR lists six in total. A “data subject” is a person whose personal data is processed, e.g. ecommerce customers, website visitors, app users, etc.

• the data subject (e.g. user) has given consent
• to fulfill a contract with the data subject
• to comply with a legal obligation to which the data controller (e.g. company) is subject
• to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person
• in the public interest, or where the data controller is exercising official authority
• legitimate interests pursued by the data controller or a third party, e.g. for individual, commercial or societal benefit

Legitimate interest is often used to justify data processing, but can be difficult to prove adequately. The safest legal basis for many types and purposes of data processing is obtaining and securely managing user consent, as with a consent management solution.

Generally, personal data can refer to any information that relates to an individual that would enable that person to be directly or indirectly identified. It could mean obvious data like names, ID numbers, or email addresses, or less obvious data that may not be identifiable except combined with other data, like IP addresses or browser cookie information.

There is also an additional category of “sensitive” personal data, which is information that is identifying, but could also cause harm if misused. This can include data like gender, religious beliefs, political affiliation, or medical information. Some technical information like biometric or geolocation data can also qualify if the intent is to use it to identify a person.

We cannot provide legal advice, and recommend consulting qualified legal counsel regarding your specific business and data processing situation.

Overall, it is important to know what regulations you need to comply with. Your responsibilities may differ under the UK GDPR compared to the EU’s GDPR or the privacy laws in the United States, for example.

However, in addition to legal requirements, being transparent with users about data collection and use, as well as requesting and respecting their consent choices creates great user experiences, which build trust with your company and help develop higher engagement and longer-term relationships.

For companies doing business in multiple regions or countries, or websites with visitors or customers from multiple areas, it is entirely possible that you may need to comply with multiple regulations. Your cookie compliance solution and Privacy Policy would need to reflect that. After the scan, you will be provided with information about your current compliance level with regulations like the GDPR or CCPA.

It can be possible to use geolocation functions on your website to show regional and regulation-specific information to users depending on where they are from.

Achieving compliance with the GDPR would be quite different from privacy compliance with the state-level laws in the United States, for example, due to their specific requirements and different models for consent. We cannot provide legal advice and recommend consulting qualified legal counsel regarding your specific business and data processing situation.

A consent management solution like the Cookiebot CMP WordPress Plugin can scan, detect and present all of the cookies and tracking technologies your website is using, and from there you can use that information to craft and maintain your Consent Management Platform (CMP) and Privacy Policy so that it complies with relevant privacy regulations.

We cannot provide legal advice or guarantee privacy compliance with any regulation, and recommend consulting qualified legal counsel regarding your specific business and data processing situation. However, knowing which regulations you need to comply with is important, and what their requirements are regarding consumer rights, notification, consent, and data use. Also knowing what cookies and other tracking technologies are in use on your website is important to ensure correct consent can be obtained, as with a consent management solution. Additionally, all of this information can be accurately and comprehensively presented on your website and maintained in your Privacy Policy.

Ensuring that users are clearly informed about your organization and contacting you, the processing of their data, their rights, and their consent choices is important, as is presenting all choices equally. Dark patterns and other elements to nudge or trick users into consenting should not be used.

Additionally, ensure that only as much data as is necessary is collected and processed only for the purposes communicated. Ensure data is kept accurate and only stored for as long as it is needed to fulfill the processing purpose. Maintain the required standards of security and privacy, and ensure processes are in place to uphold accountability.

A consent management platform (CMP) like the Cookiebot CMP WordPress Plugin can help you not only obtain and store consent correctly, but can also help you ensure that you provide and maintain accurate and up to date information about data processing services in use (e.g. cookies).

That doesn’t have to happen, though we cannot make guarantees on the performance of individual CMP implementations. There are many ways to optimize your consent management platform (CMP) to increase consent rates and data flow and provide users with a user-friendly, seamless experience. Having a great user interface that matches your branding, has clear messaging and user-friendly functionality is important. Making it easy for users to understand your data processing and make consent choices is also very valuable.

The Cookiebot CMP also has tools like analytics to help you analyze the CMP’s performance and optimize it to maximize data capture if that is a priority.

The Free plan does not include the following Premium plan standard features:

• customize banner
• customize declaration
• multiple languages
• data export
• geolocation
• Cross-domain Consent Sharing
• consent statistics
• internal domain alias for development, test and staging

Check out our Plans & Pricing page to get more information or do a full comparison.

We don’t have any contracts for Cookiebot CMP and there are no hidden fees or long-term commitments. You can cancel your subscription at any time.

It depends on your business needs and the number of domains and subpages you have.

Check out our Plans & Pricing page to get more information for your website’s specific needs.

Yes, at any time you can cancel your free trial or your plan if you previously signed up. You can do this via your “My account” page. Downgrade or cancel actions take effect at the end of your current billing period.