Video: What is a Cookies Policy

If you've ever wondered how websites remember your login details, or how items in your online shopping cart stay there while you shop, it's not magic. It's actually all because of tiny strands of data called cookies.

Today we'll cover what a Cookies Policy is, how you can create a Cookies Policy for your website, and how you as a website owner can block third-party scripts from placing cookies on your user's devices.

So if you're interested in learning more, then stay tuned.

Hey everyone, it's Heleana here, and welcome to Privacy Policies, the place where you can generate custom-made Privacy Policies in seconds to help keep your business safe.

So let's get right into it.

What are cookies?

Cookies, in their simplest form, are little clusters of data. A web server passes these data clusters through to your computer after you've landed on a website. Your computer then stores the data as files inside your browser cache. This helps identify browsing trends and patterns.

Cookies, then:

• Help businesses show customers relevant ads
• Let websites remember someone's unique preferences, which improves the visitor experience
• Help identify a user

Cookies are a powerful marketing and commercial tool, and businesses rely on them.

There are many types of cookies, including cookies that:

• Save your password(s) so you don't need to remember them whenever you visit websites
• Remember what sites you've visited in the past so you can view your browser history
• Keep track of your shopping cart as you browse an online store
• Show you targeted ads based on your browsing behavior
• Verify user login details

Bear in mind that most websites use cookies and it's important that they tell you so. They should alert you to cookie usage as soon as you land on the website, and it should be clear where you can find further information about their Cookie Policy.

What is a Cookies Policy?

A Cookies Policy is a disclosure by a website of:

• What cookies are used by the company
• How those cookies are used to collect the private information of visitors
• How the user can control the disclosure of information and use of the cookies for collection
• A Cookies Policy allows the company to have full disclosure with its users and creates a transparency of the collection of private information

You may be more familiar with a Privacy Policy than you are with a Cookies Policy. A Privacy Policy tells users how you collect and manage their personal data.

Although some businesses have separate Cookie Policies and Privacy Policies, others include cookie clauses in their Privacy Policy.

We have an entire video dedicated to what a Privacy Policy is, so if you're interested in learning more about that.

Depending on where your company is based and who your audience is, your company can include a Cookies Policy or cookies clause in your general Privacy Policy, or you may need to separate these policies.

What are the laws regarding Cookies Policies?

The principles here are, thankfully, quite straightforward. Thanks to international privacy laws including the EU's General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the ePrivacy Directive, websites must do two things before they can install cookies in your browser or device:

• Tell you about the cookies they use
• Get your consent to using these cookies

What should my Cookies Policy or cookies clause include?

Although some businesses include cookie clauses in their Privacy Policy, others have separate Cookie Policies and Privacy Policies. The best way to illustrate how this works in practice is through a few examples.

This first example is of WebMD's Cookie Policy, which is separate from its Privacy Policy.

This Cookie Policy explains when and why cookies and similar tracking technologies are used by WebMD and its partners on its websites, applications, advertisements and other related services:

In short, it tells visitors everything they need to know about cookies and what the website does with them.

In this second example, Huawei does not have a separate Cookie Policy. (Editor's Note: Huawei does now have a separate Cookie Policy.)

Everything about cookies, including how to consent and withdraw this consent, is included in the Privacy Policy. Here is an extract from the relevant section in the Privacy Policy:

Both policies are perfectly valid under the GDPR because there's no need for a separate Cookie Policy, so long as the clause explains:

• That cookies are used
• What data is collected by them
• What happens to the data, and if it's shared with anyone
• How users can change cookie settings or revoke consent

If you want to create a Cookie Policy for your website but don't know where or how to start, we recommend you use our Cookie Policy generator.

The process is simple. Just go to our website PrivacyPolicies.com, click on Cookie Policy Generator, and modify the information so that it accurately matches your business', and viola, you'll have your Cookie Policy ready within minutes.

You can also use our free tool Cookie Consent to block third-party scripts from placing cookies on user devices.

And that's it for now. We hope that you found this video on Cookie Policies helpful and informative.

If you have any more questions related to the topic that we didn't happen to touch on, please leave them in the comments below and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

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