From 6. 3. 2024, the rules for the Cookie Bar have changed as some companies that collect large amounts of personal data have become subject to special obligations and must comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Suddenly the name “cookie bar” is no longer apt. The name “Consent bar” is closer to reality because, in addition to acknowledging analytics and marketing cookies, it also includes consent to the collection and specific use of personal data. But let’s get this nicely out of the way. 🙂
What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that the web server sends to your browser, which stores them on your computer or mobile device. When you visit the site again or browse its individual pages, you do not need to re-enter the stored data.
What types of cookies do we know?
Cookies are distinguished into:
- Functional – Have you ever had a website come back to you? Functional cookies help websites remember your user preferences, e.g. your chosen language, your membership login, your billing details or the contents of a shopping cart you accidentally closed.
- Analytical – Provide data e.g. on attendance. Website owners can see how many people have visited their website, which pages they have viewed and how long they have stayed on them. Thanks to analytics cookies, they can evaluate whether the website is clear for users or a jungle from which visitors will quickly flee.
- Marketing – Used for better targeting of content to specific audiences, including personalisation of ads. Sometimes I would refer to them as “fateful signs”.
You may know it, you need new sneakers, so you go to your favourite brand’s website. You’re on the lookout for the perfect sneakers that you won’t buy just yet. Finally, you decide to try them out live in the shop. The price is not low and you don’t feel like hassling with returning them. From the moment you leave the site, your selected sneakers will start showing up everywhere. There’s not a corner of the online space where you don’t see them. Well, I don’t say fate… 🙂
You do not need users’ consent to use functional cookies. Unlike analytics and marketing cookies, where you can’t do this without consent.
Digital Markets Act (DMA)
The collection and storage of personal data does not only happen on various websites, but also when using services from companies such as Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft.
It is these companies that the European Commission has named as ‘Gatekeepers’ and identified specific services that collect important data from users. They are therefore subject to special obligations and must comply with the Digital Markets Act(DMA), a European Union regulation.
The list of companies and their services will surely grow over time.
Now “Gatekeepers” cannot merge and combine data they have obtained from their own tools without users’ consent. What could be behind the combining? Simply put: If you want to e.g. On Facebook, you can target advertising to your ideal client based on data, the buying behaviour of people who have actually made a purchase on your site.
Tools developed by Google are used for remarketing:
- Google Analytics – analyses website performance, visitor origin and behaviour, as well as the overall development of the website over a certain period of time,
- Google Ads – an online advertising platform that provides advertisers with a space to display short ads, service offers, product listings or videos across a network of member websites and platforms.
Since Google is suddenly responsible for the data it collects, it wants to know what data you collect on the web and how you use it. They need to be sure that the user knew about the whole “remarketing spartacus” and gave you their consent.
Cookies bar and Google Consent Mode
The cookie bar allows the user to approve or reject the consent to store cookies in the browser.
Google Consent Mode is a tool that passes user decisions in the background to individual services operated by Google.
There are different approaches to implementing Consent Mode. There are sites that:
- Consent Mode is not addressed because they do not use Google Analytics, Google Ads,
- have Basic Consent Mode v1 – measurement codes are triggered only when there is consent from the user,
- have Advanced Consent Mode v2 – measurement codes always trigger. If the user does not consent to the collection and further use of personal data, Google is able to model the missing data thanks to a properly set up consent.
The new Consent Mode addresses not only cookies, but also the user’s consent to use his or her personal data. It introduces the following four brands:
- analytics_storage (CM v1) – consent to the use of data for analytical purposes,
- ad_storage (CM v1) – consent to the use of data for marketing purposes,
- ad_user_data (CM v2) – consent to the use of data for advertising purposes,
- ad_personalization (CM v2) – consent to the use of data for remarketing.
If you want to continue to use cookie data for remarketing or refine your data with enhanced conversions, you should implement Consent Mode v2 as soon as possible. You need to place a CM v2 certified bar on the site. This is a bar that correctly collects only what visitors allow in it. You install the strips on the web e.g. via plugins, which are mostly paid.
See the list of official Google Partners who support consent and help you manage the Cookies Consent banner.
What should the Cookie Bar do after Google Consent Mode v2?
- The cookie bar must be functional.
- The text must clearly state what data you are collecting, how you are collecting it (through which tools), and what you will use it for.
You need consent: for analytics and marketing cookies, consent to the collection and further use of data via Google tools, consent to the collection of personal data such as email and phone. - Each category of data collection or consent must have a separate checkbox that is not pre-ticked.
- The “accept” button must have the same form as the “reject” button.
- User consent will be obtained again after 12 months.
- There is a button on the website to withdraw consent.
- You cannot make your consent conditional on your use of the website.
Don’t know how to set the cookie bar correctly? Need help with that?
I like to use the Complianz plugin to create the cookie bar. To continue to transparently collect data about your website visitors and to link Google tools like Google Analytics and Google Ads, you need the paid version. In it, you can create a Consent banner that meets everything you need.
I create websites and graphics for women that match them. Thanks to this, they can authentically spread the message of their business and thus more easily get the right clients. I like it when the web breathes with the charisma and style of a woman. It has a clean and distinctive design that underlines her personal brand.
