Have You Developed a Cookies Strategy for Your Website?

Cookies are little chunks of data that are placed on a users computer or device by a web browser. They typically help websites, 3rd parties and browsers to keep track of a visitor and understand key information about them. They are often essential for functionality on the site, and in many cases help contribute to an enhanced experience for your visitors.

Whilst generally cookies serve understandable or legitimate purposes, they can be used to gather data about a visitor - including creating a profile of what you do online. As such, Cookies are now regulated by the Information Commissioner's Office (the ICO), who have produced a raft of guidance for how to communicate your cookie usage and collect consent from your visitors. You can find the details of this here. 

Whilst the guidelines are comprehensive, experience with different compliance teams has shown us that they are still very much open to interpretation. As such, Bluesky have endeavoured to create a flexible range of cookie implementation options that your compliance experts can choose from to create the ideally compliant dealer website. 

For simplicity, there are two main approaches:

One approach is to have an automatic pop-up at the top or bottom of the screen for new visitors.

This will inform them that by using your website they agree to our use of cookies in accordance with your cookie policy. This is simple and ensures that all cookies will be used, so customers can’t opt out of useful cookies for you like analytics related tracking cookies.

We would advise that you contact your legal team to assess whether this approach fits with your interpretations of the latest ICO guidance on cookie usage.

Rather than simply saying they have to accept cookies, the pop-up notice will give the client the option to change their cookie preferences.

The pop-up that appears for new users will offer a link to a page which will let them disable non-essential cookies. This is more stringent in terms of meeting GDPR guidelines although it does mean some customers may take the opportunity to disable cookies.

There is also the ability if needed to disable all non-essential cookies by default, this will have significant effects on functionality and tracking.

There are a wide range of Cookie options for your strategy - if you want to hear about more options then we would recommend you speak to your Account Manager, who can provide a list of options that you can draw your own preferences and conclusions from. 

Simply speak to your Account Malmanagement team who will be able to raise a time quote for your specific requirements and set the process in motion for implementation.