A Video on How To Check for Cookies on a Website
Compliance with PECR (the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations of 2003) requires that Cookies on websites are deployed appropriately.
The SRA Code 2019 for legal practices, paragraph 2.1a, requires for practices to comply not only with SRA regulation, but also other regulation and legislation which apply to them.
The Cookies used for following the activity of visitors to websites (also known as 'tracking' or 'non-essential' Cookies) must be explicitly advised to visitors and the visitors must explicitly opt-in to the non-essential Cookies being used in respect of their website visit, otherwise tracking Cookies must not be deployed.
By default, tracking Cookies should not be in operation.
Stating on a website to the effect of ‘…by continuing to use this website you agree to the use of [non-essential] Cookies…’ does not resolve or sidestep this requirement.
Many website developers automatically include tracking Cookies in websites. Some website developers have even erroneously informed practices that tracking Cookies are not present! But, ultimately, it is the responsibility of the Data Controller (the legal practice) to ensure that the regulations are complied with.
A very significant proportion of legal practice websites in the UK do not presently comply with the PECR.
Why does this matter?
In a nutshell, information collected by Cookies is personal data under the UK GDPR.
That means that legal practices must apply the appropriate care and management to these as they would other personal data.
This includes defining the Legal Basis for processing, the retention and disposal schedule, defining who has access and informing the Data Subject of their Individual Rights in this respect.
And, for Lexcel accredited organisations, this impacts upon compliance with requirement 3.1b of v6.1 of the Lexcel standard.
You can easily check the Cookie status of a website with a few clicks in the Google Chrome web browser. The video below shows you how to do this.
(The video is visual only; no audio. Click on the full-screen control in the video window to enlarge the screen.)
Then, you can use the list below the video to identify whether or not the Cookie is a 'tracking' Cookie.
Concerned? Need help? Please Get in touch with us here.
A list of some of the Cookie variants
NB. This list includes some tracking Cookies and is not intended to be exhaustive.
_ga: Google Analytics: Allows to track visits and visitors.
_gid: Google Analytics: Allows to track visits and visitors.
1P_JAR: Google Analytics: Collects website statistics and tracks conversion rates.
APISID: Google / Youtube: This cookie stores the preferences and other information of the user. These include, in particular, the preferred language, the number of search results to be displayed on the page, and the decision whether or not to activate Google's SafeSearch filter.
CONSENT: YouTube: This cookie stores the preferences and other information of the user. These include, in particular, the preferred language, the number of search results to be displayed on the page, and the decision whether or not to activate Google's SafeSearch filter.
NID: Google: This cookie stores the preferences and other information of the user. These include, in particular, the preferred language, the number of search results to be displayed on the page, and the decision whether or not to activate Google's SafeSearch filter.
DSID: AdWords Remarketing: This cookie is used to link your activity to different devices if you previously signed in to your Google Account on another device.
SID: Google / Youtube: This cookie stores the preferences and other information of the user. These include, in particular, the preferred language, the number of search results to be displayed on the page, and the decision whether or not to activate Google's SafeSearch filter.
SIDCC: Google / Youtube: Security cookie that protects user data from unauthorized access.
SSID: Google / Youtube: This cookie stores the preferences and other information of the user. These include, in particular, the preferred language, the number of search results to be displayed on the page, and the decision whether or not to activate Google's SafeSearch filter.
IDE: AdWords Remarketing: Used for advertising that we display in various places on the web.
fr: Facebook: promotional purposes.
HSID: Youtube / Google: This cookie stores the preferences and other information of the user. These include, in particular, the preferred language, the number of search results to be displayed on the page, and the decision whether or not to activate Google's SafeSearch filter.