Cookies and Digital Governance

When people see their first Optanon Cookie Audit, the most common responses are along the lines of:

• “I had no idea we had so many.”
• “How did those get there?“
• “These ones should have been removed ages ago.“

Modern websites are complex beasts. It is often more accurate to think of them as a cloud of aggregated technologies and services than as unified entities. The way they are managed, often with multiple editors and contributors, means they accumulate features and elements over time. Then every 2-3 years (at most) they undergo a re-design, but even then the rationale for having all the different bits of embedded tech is rarely examined. Taking stuff out of a site is seen as riskier (especially for SEO), than leaving it in.

Another driver is the fact that it has got so easy, that a lot less attention gets paid to the technology than the feature it supports. Marketers want videos and chat facilities, they don’t want to worry about how they work.

The cost of active management also plays a role. You put some content up for a campaign, but when the campaign ends, you stop investing in it, which means the content may get relegated or ignored, but rarely taken down. After all – even old campaigns can drive engagement, the cost of leaving them in place is negligible, so what’s the risk?