Published policies
Cookie notice
In the libraryThe door has this paper. Type its name at the composer. It offers to start from it.
The short public notice that says what your site stores in a visitor's browser and why. It is the page a cookie banner links to, and it is written to be read by a visitor rather than by a lawyer. It usually lists the categories in use, says roughly how long each stays, names the third parties involved, and explains how somebody changes a choice they already made.
- Printed on the page as
- Cookie Notice
- Where it can live
- Any of the 184 governing laws
Who uses one
- Anyone running a site that sets cookies or similar storage.
- Companies using analytics, advertising or embedded third-party content.
- Businesses whose consent banner needs somewhere to link to.
What you are deciding
- What is stored, listed by category
- What each category is for
- How long each stays
- Which third parties set anything
- How consent is asked for, where it is asked for
- How a visitor changes their mind afterwards
- How the notice is kept in step with the site
Blanks you leave stay blank and wait in the room. Nothing is filled in from a guess.
The sections a draft usually has
- 1What cookies are
- 2What this site uses
- 3Strictly necessary
- 4Analytics
- 5Advertising and third parties
- 6How long each stays
- 7Managing your choices
- 8Changes to this notice
A general outline, not a required one. What turns up in a draft follows what you described. A contract is written in the order a contract is read.
What people call it
Type any of these at the door. It offers this paper. The matching happens in your own browser, on a wordlist you could read. No model runs before you sign in.
- cookie notice
- cookie policy
- cookie banner
Questions people ask
- Is a cookie notice the same as a privacy policy?
- No, though they overlap. The cookie notice covers what is stored on the visitor's device; the privacy policy covers personal information more broadly. Many sites publish both and link between them.
- Does a site need a consent banner?
- It depends on the jurisdiction and on what is being stored. Several regions require consent before non-essential storage, which is why banners are common on sites serving those regions.
- Does this cover things that are not technically cookies?
- Notices of this kind usually cover similar technologies too — local storage, pixels and device identifiers — because the rules generally follow the function rather than the name.
General answers about the document. Not advice about your situation. Not written about any one country.
Where it lives
A contract names the legal system it is governed by. That is a separate decision from which paper it is. You pick it at the door, from any of the 184 units in Governing law, including England and Wales, Delaware, California and New York.
Say what you agreed in one sentence. When what you describe is cookie notice, the door offers this paper. One press takes it. One press refuses it.
Start it at the door →Related kinds