In all their simplicity, cookies are nothing more but small text files containing data pieces. Cookies were invented in the early 90s and are named after fortune cookies. This is because cookies can be viewed as structures containing messages – just like fortune cookies. Cookies are essential for online businesses, as they collect data from end-users that can be profiled and used for targeted advertisement.

Cookies can track all kinds of information like technical specifications, internet provider, physical appearance, religious beliefs etc. Cookies are not bad, but it is their potential abuse that can be concerning.

What types of cookies are running on my website?

Almost every website, no matter how big or small, use cookies. Cookies can be grouped into four categories: Necessary cookies, preference cookies, statistics cookies, and marketing cookies. The latter two make up most of the cookies on the internet, as behavior tracking has become an indispensable asset when it comes to efficiently running a business on the world wide web.

If you want to know which cookies are running on your website, think about which third-party services you are using. However, this retrospective method is not sufficient to get a complete overview of all the active cookies on your domain, as there is a chance that there are cookies you may not be aware of and may not be able to detect yourself.

Why do I have to become cookie compliant?

On May 25th, 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), an EU-wide regulation, was enforced, forcing companies and organizations worldwide to tighten up their data collection procedures, provide transparency, and obtain informed user consent. If your website serves users from the European Union, then you are obligated to become compliant.

Should you fail to become GDPR compliant, you risk getting fined of up to €20 million or 4% of your company’s global yearly turnover, whichever is higher. Fines have already been dealt by authorities. Besides the monetary punishment that non-compliance can result in, one must also take into consideration the bad publicity that comes with such a hefty fine.

What can I do to become compliant?

To become GDPR compliant, you must get your cookies under control – and then give that control to your website users. But before controlling comes knowing, and a good place to start is to get a hold of all active cookies on your website. But as mentioned above, this is easier said than done.

So, what most website owners do is to use an automated cookie audit tool, otherwise known as a cookie checker. A cookie checker can scan your website for active cookies and give you a comprehensive list of all detected cookies in addition to a description of what type of data they specifically collect.

Some tools are designed as plugins that you can install on your website, enabling you to ensure that your list of active cookies is always updated. These types of automated solutions are rising in popularity, as they can dig out detailed information in a matter of minutes. Were a human to perform the same feat, it would take hours, if not days.