How To Make Your WordPress Site UK Cookie Law Compliant

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If you are a company or business (including self-employed), your website probably already has a privacy policy, if it doesn’t you can get one easily from templates provided by the business link.

UPDATE business link is no more, so you can get my UK cookie policy template (.docx) GET IN TOUCH AND I WILL MAIL YOU THE TEMPLATE, there is a section on cookies that provides general information to visitors on how cookies are handled and makes the case for their benefits, most sites these days need cookies (small files that hold user specific data) in order to function properly or “remember” things such as your user name, password, type of device you use, etc. Privacy concerns are on the rise mainly due to abuse of private data by big social sites, you know who “they is”.

UK/EU Cookie Law

You can find the full article from the UK Information Commissioner here but in nutshell UK businesses need to know and abide by the new directive.

New EU cookie law (e-Privacy Directive). The law which applies to how you use cookies and similar technologies for storing information on a user’s equipment such as their computer or mobile device changed on 26 May 2012.

The Information Commissioner

Get the full guidance document: ICO cookies guidance (pdf) and find the policy main points below.

  • Implied consent is a valid form of consent and can be used in the context of compliance with the revised rules on cookies.
  • If you are relying on implied consent you need to be satisfied that your users understand that their actions will result in cookies being set. Without this understanding you do not have their informed consent.
  • You should not rely on the fact that users might have read a privacy policy that is perhaps hard to find or difficult to understand.
  • In some circumstances, for example where you are collecting sensitive personal data such as health information, you might feel that explicit consent is more appropriate.

The Cookie Audit

Now that you’re clear on the law let’s make your WordPress website compliant, the first step is to perform a cookie audit and let each user know what cookies your site placed on their device. Ideally, and you may already have seen this from major banks and other companies, you would greet each user with an option to ask the user to accept cookies before they are actually placed.

Unfortunately, that solution is more complex (read time/money) than what this post and plugins do, which is well sufficient to make your WordPress site compliant with the new cookie law.

I have come across at least two such solutions that also work on any site, but it is possibly that those are more appropriate for large organisations as the popup or pop-over may in fact distract or even confuse less experienced users which in turn may result in a higher number of bounces or site abandonment. If you have trouble finding a solution such as this get in tough and let me know.

Once you install the plugins offered in the next section you will be able to display the cookies stored on any machine by simply using a shortcode.
[code][cookies][/code] Wherever you put the above shortcode a table of cookies is then displayed, such as below.
[cookies]

WordPress Plugins

There are two plugins that you need to install for this to work, the first is cookie-cat, once that’s done you’ll get a WordPress admin message (in red, you can’t miss it) alerting for the fact that you need a second plugin.  Follow the link and it will take you to oik base plugin (so you noticed the; erm peculiar plugin name) never mind that, it does what we need it to.

Once both plugins are installed and activated the shortcode:

[code][cookies][/code]

Should work fine and display the table of cookies, bare in mind that this will  be different for each individual user, you as the Admin on your site are bound to have a few extra ones.

Sample Privacy and Cookie Policies

I have compiled an adjusted privacy policy, that uses the sample above from the UK business link. The sections on “cookies” and “controlling personal information” are then complemented by “Below is a table with the cookies our website placed on your computer” that operates with the cookies shortcode and finally one more section on “Browser specific instructions to block and remove cookies” for all major desktop and mobile browsers.

You can get it here UK cookie policy template (.doc) and tweak it to your own purposes. If you choose to do so any sort of recognition will be appreciated, a tweet or comment would be fine. If you find all of this too much of an hassle but like the idea of being one of the first “cool kids” to show that you care about your users privacy, get in touch and I’m more than happy to help.

Browser Specific Instructions to Block and Remove Cookies

Internet Explorer
Changing privacy and other browser settings in Internet Explorer
Firefox
Changing privacy and other browser settings in Firefox
Google Chrome
Changing privacy and other browser settings in Google Chrome
Opera
Changing privacy and other browser settings in Opera
Safari
Changing privacy and other browser settings in Safari
Safari iOS
Changing privacy and other browser settings in iOS, iPhone and iPad
Android
Changing privacy and other browser settings in Android
Blackberry
Changing privacy and other browser settings in Blackberry
Windows Phone
Changing privacy and other browser settings in Windows Phone

This post is for information purposes only and you should use it at your own discretion. Which in plain English means you are advised to do your own research and We/I accept no liability of any kind for your use of such information.

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