Have you seen a bar across the bottom or the top of a website letting you know the site uses cookies and asking you to either accept or change your cookie settings?
On January 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which grants California residents more control over how their data is used online, went into effect. That alert bar is one of the ways those websites are complying with the Act.
You may have also heard about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was implemented in 2018 by the European Union. The GDPR set the platform for CCPA and you can see it in action in privacy and tracking settings on websites such as Facebook and Google.
Are you wondering if you need to add a cookie notice on your website too? According to this Wired article, CCPA applies to businesses (not non-profit entities) that operate in California and either:
- Make $25 million or more per year or
- Gather data on 50,000 users or
- Make more than half of their money from user data.
GDPR applies to businesses with 250 or more employees that locally target content or advertising campaigns in Europe. For more information on GDPR, take a look at this article from Forbes.
We have noticed many businesses that have added a cookie notice to their website, even though the business does not meet the qualifications that require compliance with CCPA. If you would like your website to comply with CCPA or GDPR, we have a standard package that we can apply to your site that includes the alert bar and appropriate settings. Please contact Jeff for details.