Is a Cookie Banner Enough for Website Compliance?

If your website has a cookie banner, you may feel like you’ve checked the box on compliance. Unfortunately, that is one of the most common misconceptions organizations have today. A cookie banner is the visible component of a compliance strategy. Depending on your business, your visitors, and the applicable regulations, relying solely on a banner may leave gaps.

What does a cookie consent banner do?

A cookie consent banner notifies website users about cookie and tracking technologies, and when applicable, requests their consent before non-essential cookies are activated. The banner is an important part of privacy compliance, but by itself, it typically does not address all compliance obligations.

Is a cookie banner enough for website compliance?

Banners give website users the opportunity to record their wishes for cookie storage and tracking of their activity on the website, but this step alone doesn’t make a website compliant.

Here are four points of interest a business needs to keep in mind when assessing its compliance strategy.

1. Regulations and accessibility requirements differ by country and state.

Privacy requirements are often determined by where website visitors are located, not simply where the business operates. For example, if someone visits a website from California or the European Union, different privacy laws may apply than for a visitor from another jurisdiction. That means organizations serving customers across multiple regions need a way to recognize which regulations apply and present the appropriate consent experience.

2. Regulations and policies change continuously.

Within the United States alone, each of its fifty states operate by their own state-regulated laws and policies. For example, recent laws in states like Texas give residents rights over their personal data, including the right to delete information a business obtained about them. Keeping up with new policies and changes to policies in each state is necessary to be able to correctly address current requirements.

3. When a user expresses their preferences, those preferences must be stored in consent logs, and the website must operate correctly according to their expressed consent.

There’s little value in presenting a consent banner if the website doesn’t remember or honor the user’s selections. If consent preferences aren’t stored, visitors may be repeatedly prompted for the same choices, creating a frustrating user experience. More importantly, the organization may have no reliable way to demonstrate what consent was given, when it was given, or which version of the consent notice the user accepted. In the event of a regulatory inquiry, complaint, or audit, consent logs can help organizations show that they collected and managed consent appropriately. Without those records, it may be difficult to demonstrate that user preferences were respected or that the organization took reasonable steps to comply with applicable laws.

4. The cookie banner must operate in a way that addresses regulatory requirements.

Installing a cookie banner incorrectly could mean you’re leaving your business open to potential issues. For example, website visitors must be presented with data privacy options before Google Analytics captures their data, not after.

The bottom line is that cookie banners involve far more than a consent message that pops up on a website. They are part of a full system of data compliance management.

What features should a website compliance platform include?

Before evaluating your website, you first need to understand which privacy and accessibility regulations apply to your business. Requirements vary based on factors such as your visitor’s locations, the data you collect, and where you operate.

Clym’s free Compass tool helps identify the regulations that may apply to your organization, giving you a starting point for assessing compliance needs.

Once you know which regulations apply, use the following checklist to evaluate whether your website includes the capabilities needed to support compliance.
Does your website adhere to the following?

✓ Collects and manages cookie consent
✓ Stores consent records and user preferences
✓ Automatically blocks non-essential cookies until consent is given
✓ Maintains up-to-date privacy policies and legal notices
✓ Supports accessibility compliance
✓ Processes data subject requests
✓ Monitors regulatory changes
✓ Reviews and updates compliance settings regularly

Keeping a website in compliance with changing regulations is an ongoing process, and the platform you select should be able to keep up with these changes.

Governments often change their interpretations of privacy, impacting enforceable laws. Additionally, new tracking technologies consistently emerge, obscuring what was clear and decided.

Organizations should choose a compliance solution that not only addresses today’s requirements but also helps them adapt as regulations and technologies evolve.

How do I choose the right website compliance solution for my team?

If you’ve been tasked with researching website compliance solutions, you’re probably not expected to become a privacy attorney overnight. With regulations varying by location that are constantly evolving, it’s very difficult to build a solution in-house that accurately accounts for such variation.

When looking for a solution for a team, each stakeholder likely brings a different priority to the solution. Does this sound familiar?

• Legal wants to confirm the product works effectively, keeping the business far from harm.
• The IT department wants a product that could be installed and function seamlessly.
• Marketing wants a pop-up that looks great on the site while still collecting as much customer data as possible.
• The procurement department wants an affordable option that fits within the budget.

The right platform will provide an answer to each stakeholder’s needs.

What to look for in a product to align your website with applicable requirements

If you’re evaluating solutions, include these considerations in the product you select:

• Handles multiple regulations based on user location
• Manages consent and stores user preferences
• Includes accessibility monitoring and remediation tools
• Automatically updates as laws evolve
• All-in-one product reducing visual clutter on the website
• Scalable for enterprise-level businesses
• Easy to implement
• Includes technical support and ongoing monitoring

Why organizations choose a comprehensive compliance platform

On G2, recent Clym customer shared:

“I appreciate that Clym Inc. helps us manage consent and compliance requirements across our ecommerce website, which is crucial since we sell internationally and need to adhere to different privacy rules without manual configuration.”

For organizations serving customers across multiple states or countries, compliance quickly becomes too complex to manage manually. Different visitors may be subject to different privacy regulations, requiring websites to present the appropriate consent experience based on where each user is located.

Rather than maintaining separate tools or constantly tracking regulatory changes, many organizations choose a comprehensive compliance platform that automatically adapts to applicable privacy requirements while centralizing consent management, policy updates, and accessibility tools in one place.

The result is a simpler process, fewer vendors to manage, and greater confidence in the accessibility of your website.

Next steps: building a sustainable website compliance strategy

Cookie consent banners are an important starting point, but website compliance extends well beyond displaying a banner. Organizations should think of website compliance as an ongoing process that includes consent management, accessibility, policy updates, and adapting to changing regulations.

If you’re evaluating website compliance solutions, start by understanding which regulations apply to your organization. Our free Compass tool will help you do this.

If you’re looking for guidance on how Clym’s All-in-One Digital Compliance Solution will help your organization, we’re here to help. Schedule a time to speak with an expert now.