As a domain owner you need to let the users of your website(s) know about any data collection taking place and seek their explicit consent. This has been especially important since GDPR came into effect in May 2018.
In this article you’ll find information on the following:
- Creating a Privacy Policy
- Getting Consent for Cookies
Creating a Privacy Policy
You will need to display a privacy policy on your website to let users know if you collect any information from them and how this is used.
How to create a privacy policy
A privacy policy is a page on your website that outlines how you are collecting users’ information, what information you are collecting and why. It should include how long you keep this information for and where it is stored. You should also include information about who runs the website (i.e. your name) and how users can contact the owner of the site (i.e. an email address of yours that you are happy to display publicly for people to contact you on).
Once you have created your privacy policy page, you will need to make this easy to find by adding a link to it on the website’s navigation menu.
WordPress makes it easy for you to create a privacy policy page by allowing you to generate a templated policy that you can then make edits to with information related to your website. To get started, go to Settings > Privacy in your WordPress dashboard.
Getting Consent for Cookies
Website cookies track visitors to your website and can be helpful for analysing behaviour or customising experiences on your site. However, people have a legal right to understand when you’re collecting their data. You can set this up on your site by adding a cookie consent banner.
How to create a cookie consent banner
You will have seen cookie consent banners on various website as you browse the internet. These popups tell you that cookies are running on the site and how they are used. They also ask you whether you consent to their use of cookies.
If your website uses cookies you will need to display a cookie consent banner to your users. This cookie notice will make users aware that you have cookies running on your website. This cookie notice should include a way for users to opt-in to the use of cookies and provide a hyperlink to your website’s privacy policy.
In WordPress, you will need to find a plugin that will allow you to create a cookie consent notice. This notice will need to remain visible to users until if or when they choose to give consent to the cookies running on your website.
To find out more information about cookies and cookie consent read the UK Information Commissioner’s Office guidance available online here.
