Companies warned time running out for GDPR compliance

IN April this year, the Irish Data Protection Commission released updated guidance on cookie compliance for Irish websites.

DAVE McEvoy of Sligo based digital company, Dmac Media, is warning businesses that they may not be compliant and time is running out.

Irish businesses were given six months to bring their sites in line with this newly clarified advice on cookie management. From October 6 th, 2020 Irish businesses could face financial penalties under the GDPR legislation for non-compliance.

A cookie is a small text file on a device used to store information. By placing a cookie on a site it allows the website to have a memory of the users’ computer activity.

If a user clicks not to accept cookies some features of the website may not be available to them.

However, when they click to accept they may unwittingly be agreeing to share their information with a plethora of advertising platforms.

Since GDPR measures were introduced in 2018, most website owners are aware that their website needed a “Cookie Message” but the vast majority of these messages are not compliant with the law.

Where the majority of Irish companies fall down is in disclosing the way the cookies are used.

For example: most people do not specifically agree to share their information to be used by advertising platforms yet remarketing campaigns follow them from site to site online.

To become compliant a business needs to do a simple update to its online cookie message.

Websites should not set any cookies that require consent until after the user has expressed permission.