GDPR, cookies and co – What you need to know in e-commerce!

Data protection has always been a hot topic in the business world, but GDPR, cookies and other topics have been mandatory reading for entrepreneurs since May 25th, 2018. Regardless of whether you operate e-commerce, offer a blog or even a complete platform is your product – ruinous penalties are threatened if data is not handled correctly. In this post you will learn everything about the data protection regulation, what cookies are and why a consent manager is part of every web exit.

The GDPR: Five letters that change everything

Behind this abbreviation, which you have certainly noticed before, is the term General Data Protection Regulation. This regulation was issued by the EU and regulates the processing of personal data. These include, but are not limited to, sharing personal information with third parties, the GDPR concept of data minimization, and the implications of sharing personal information without consent. The GDPR applies both in the public and private context and throughout the EU. Its goal is to protect all personal data in the EU , while at the same time ensuring free data movement in the European internal market. Until then, many companies had not dealt adequately with data protection or had been careless with the data of their users or customers.

The GDPR finally put an end to this and forced many companies to deal specifically with this topic for the first time. According to the GDPR, the processing of personal data is only permitted with express consent. What sounds simple is particularly explosive on the Internet. Because thanks to sophisticated tracking software, personal user data can be easily obtained even if the user does not disclose any data himself, for example in a form field.

In fact, the possibilities of modern online technology go much further, because users can also be indirectly identified by their IP address and combined with other personal characteristics to form an individual profile. Deliberate GDPR violations will be severely penalized. In this case, companies must expect high fines or imprisonment of up to two years.

What exactly are cookies?

Anyone who visits a website for the first time will most likely be asked whether the site’s cookies should be accepted. These are nothing more than small text files that can be stored in the browser and collect personal information there. Their use is not limited to conventional desktop PCs or laptops, but is also possible on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. They can serve different purposes, but are mostly used to identify website users.

This can be beneficial for many reasons. For example, if you want a website to remember your shopping cart, search terms, or your user data, the small text files do exactly that. On the other hand, they can also save the browser history, which in turn provides information about personal interests and habits. This type of information is of course extremely interesting for advertisers, especially in e-commerce. Because here you get an absolutely authentic profile to which individual advertising can be ideally adapted.

Since sensitive personal data is obviously stored in the small text files, it is absolutely necessary according to the General Data Protection Regulation that the user personally agrees to this. Because the disclosure of personal data without consent can be subject to heavy fines.

What next for data protection?

The General Data Protection Regulation is only intended as the first step in a broader campaign for even more protection of personal data. The ePrivacy Directive is set to come into force in the near future. This is an even more precise handout for the protection of personal data in electronic communication in and outside of e-commerce. Since the ePrivacy Directive has not yet been finalized, some changes are still to be expected.

Solve many tasks with a single tool

With the General Data Protection Regulation, it became standard that users had to give an explicit declaration of consent before their data was saved.
So if you have previously relied on the use of cookies to market your products, your users must explicitly agree to cookies being set on their browsers. The storage of further personal data for purposes such as marketing or analysis, such as the IP address, is no longer possible without consent.

However, these are just some of the actual factors that need to be considered in order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. Entrepreneurs who primarily want to take care of their day-to-day business need a powerful and easy-to-use solution at this point. Companies therefore cannot avoid a consent management provider. This is a service provider that manages the consent of website visitors for its users and at the same time prepares the data for marketing uses, while complying with the GDPR regulations on data minimization. However, the main goal of a consent manager is to make the customer’s website compliant with the regulations.

The Consent Manager brings these advantages

The Consentmanager is a fully integrated tool that makes it much easier for companies to comply with all the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation and still collect data for advertising use. The consent tool is compatible with ad servers such as GAM/AdSense and others, offers a comprehensive portfolio of privacy features and is available in four different package sizes. For the General Data Protection Regulation and the CCPA (California/USA Privacy Policy), this tool includes consent logs, a secure database with server location in the EU , and automatic blocking of codes and cookies.

In addition to monitoring, the core is a cookie crawler, which automatically crawls your website once a day and carries out an automatic conformity check with the General Data Protection Regulation as well as automatic cookie classification. The cookie crawler also identifies newly found providers and exports the cookie list via numerous interfaces. The Consentmanager offers you numerous options to make your site GDPR-compliant and to be on the safe side. You can customize the tool to your design and add your logo.

In addition, the consent manager offers you numerous reports and A/B testing as well as optimization suggestions. Furthermore, the tool is easy to integrate, available in over 30 languages and completely secure in Europe.

Secure now and implement Consent Manager!

Are you responsible for data protection in a company or would you like to further improve the conformity of your SME with the General Data Protection Regulation? Then now is the right time to implement a fully integrated solution like the Consent Manager – regardless of whether you operate in e-commerce or are active in another segment. Protect your company from harsh sanctions, because hardly any human data protection officer can work with the precision of a high-performance tool. In this way you can protect yourself from expensive mistakes and be on the road to success. Get to know Consent Manager now and benefit!