Does Your Firm Have a Cookie Consent Policy? What to Know About Compliance

​Cookies are a fundamental component of modern law firm websites.

By helping websites recognize visitors and understand how they interact with content, cookies can support improvements to the user experience, inform content strategy, and enable more personalized advertising.

But as data privacy laws continue to evolve, cookie consent and transparency have become more important than ever. How can you reduce privacy-related risk?

Why You Need a Cookie Consent Policy

When it comes to cookie consent, regulations can vary widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. To reduce privacy-related risk, you have to think beyond the states (and even the countries) in which it does business.

The EU and UK: Permission First

Under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), your law firm’s website must obtain a user’s explicit opt-in permission before storing non-essential cookies on their devices. Similar standards apply in the UK, which adopted its own version of the GDPR following Brexit.

Depending on your firm's audience and the jurisdictions in which your website is accessible, privacy obligations may extend beyond the state or country where your firm is located.

The US: States are Getting Stricter

In the United States, federal law allows cookies by default, and users can be required to actively opt out of tracking. However, more than 20 states have passed their own data privacy laws with significantly stricter provisions. Just last month, Vermont became the latest state to do so with the passage of the Vermont Data Privacy and Online Surveillance Act (VDPOSA).

As is the case with legislation enacted by some other states, the VDPOSA requires affirmative opt-in consent before processing sensitive data. Vermont also joined Connecticut, Washington, and Nevada in requiring opt-in consent before selling or offering to sell consumer health data, and in banning geofencing near healthcare facilities. The law's definition of "sensitive data" is also broad, covering things like financial account numbers paired with login credentials and government ID numbers, which many other state laws don't address.

Why Your Law Firm’s Privacy Policy Isn’t Enough

Companies and organizations of every size have faced litigation for allegedly violating state data privacy rules. From what we’re seeing, most of these cases turn less on whether a business intended to violate anyone's privacy and more on whether its website actually gave visitors transparency and a way to consent before tracking began.

A Privacy Policy and a Cookie Consent solution serve different purposes. A Privacy Policy explains, in broad terms, how your firm collects, uses, and shares information. A Cookie Consent solution identifies the tracking technologies running on your website and, where appropriate, allows visitors to manage their consent before those technologies are activated.

While your Privacy Policy may describe your data practices, it typically doesn't identify the specific tracking technologies running on your website (such as Google Analytics, advertising pixels, or chat widgets) or provide visitors with a way to manage their preferences. Likewise, a cookie banner by itself does not constitute a complete consent management solution.

Under the GDPR and the privacy laws of many jurisdictions, a Privacy Policy or cookie banner alone may not satisfy applicable consent and transparency requirements.

Your Firm's Cookie Consent Checklist

So how can you ensure your firm's website complies with all applicable data privacy regulations? You must implement a robust cookie consent program that includes both a Cookie Policy and a Cookie Consent solution that provides users with specific information about what's being tracked and why:

• A simple, plain-language definition of what a cookie is
• An explanation of why you use them: remembering login details, analyzing site traffic, serving targeted ads, etc.
• A cookie table listing each cookie by category (strictly necessary, functional, analytics, advertising), along with its name, provider, purpose, and expiration
• Disclosure of any third-party services placing cookies on your site, such as Google Analytics or the Meta Pixel
• A Cookie Consent banner that allows visitors to manage their cookie preferences where appropriate
• Instructions on how visitors can manage, delete, or withdraw consent, including through their browser settings
• Contact information for questions about the policy
• A date showing when the policy was last updated

Once you’ve implemented a formal Cookie Consent Policy, it should be linked from a banner or pop-up that’s clearly visible on a user’s first visit and that allows them to actively "Accept" or "Reject" (or “Decline") the tracking technologies being used on your site.

Where Does Your Law Firm’s Website Stand?

If you’re not sure where your site stands or are concerned your firm might be out of compliance, Good2bSocial can work with you to implement a cookie consent solution designed to support evolving privacy expectations and applicable regulatory requirements, starting with a Website Compliance Health Check to identify opportunities to strengthen your website's privacy posture. From there, our team will:

• Install and configure a cookie consent solution built for your firm’s website.
• Implement and customize a cookie banner that matches your site's design.
• Configure your cookie policy to cover every category of tracking technologies running on your site.
• Test and deploy, confirming that non-essential cookies behave according to the configured consent preferences, that "Accept" and "Reject" both function properly, and that consent is logged correctly

If you’d like to learn more, connect with Good2bSocial today. We’d be delighted to discuss your needs.