The Five Models of Cookie Law Consent

The recent cookie sweep conducted by French regulator the CNIL has caused an upsurge in interest and articles about complying with the EU cookie laws.

Whilst some have taken stock of what a few popular websites have done in response, much of the content is over-simplistic and nothing more than re-hashing of guidance that was around three years ago.  This  ‘stick up a cookie banner’ advice is just not good enough.

So we decided it was time to do produce something a little more substantial.  Something that would layout the key choices available to website owners looking to either implement a solution for the first time, or as many are doing, reviewing and changing a first generation sticking plaster.

The result is our new white paper, published here today, Five Models for Cookie Law Consent.

Rather than looking simply at what your solution should look like, we present website owners with the main options open to them in term of the information and choices they might provide to their visitors.  We look at the benefits and the risks of each option, with clear advice on the mistakes to avoid.

Our belief is that until you have a good grasp of each of these, you cannot make any reasoned decisions about design, language and user experience.  If you don’t consciously choose which option to take you risk misleading your customers and damaging your business, as much if not more so than enforcement action.

I will warn you now, it’s a long document, running to 19 pages without pictures.  But for anyone who is serious about balancing the desires of customers, the needs of the business, and the demands of EU data protection authorities, we hope it will prove a valuable guide.

Five Models for Cookie Law Consent