3 steps to a safer online experience for your website visitors

3 steps to a safer online experience for your website visitors

On 8 February it is Safer Internet Day. A day dedicated to a safe online experience. The perfect time to think about your company’s website. Which (legally required) matters should you provide on your website to contribute to a safe internet climate and why are they important? We list them for you.

Almost every website uses cookies: small files that keep track of the visitor’s use of the website. There are first party cookies (placed by you) and third-party cookies (placed by a third party) which are then divided into four different categories.

  • Essential cookies
  • Analytical cookies
  • Functional cookies
  • Marketing cookies

You don’t need the visitor’s permission to use essential cookies. They are necessary for the proper functioning of the website. For the three other categories, however, obtaining permission is mandatory. You do this by placing a cookie banner on your website.

This banner appears at the first visit to the website and explains why cookies are necessary of used on your website. Subsequently, the user should have the possibility to accept the cookies, refuse the (non-essential) cookies, or determine himself which categories of cookies are used.

In addition, as a company you are obliged to inform website visitors about the specific use of cookies on your website. This is done by means of a cookie policy on the website and/or by placing a link to this in the cookie banner. The following matters must be stated in a cookie policy:

  • The identity and contact details of your company
  • Explanation of what cookies are and why they are used on the website
  • Information about the different categories of cookies that are used, including an explanation of what these cookies mean for the visitor
  • A list of all different cookies used, their purpose, category and retention period
  • Instructions on how users can delete cookies, disable them or change their preferences

Privacy policy

Your website would not be complete without a privacy policy. As a company you inevitably process personal data. Simply put, this is all data that contains information about an identified of identifiable person. This definition is very broad and includes all information that you collect about your customers, suppliers, people who subscribe to your newsletter, etc.

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (better known as the GDPR), you are obliged to inform people transparently and clearly about the processing of their personal data.

In order to meet this obligation, you should place a privacy policy on your website which certainly includes the following:

  • The identity and contact details of your company as the party responsible for processing personal data
  • Which personal details are collected, how these are collected and who these personal details belong to
  • Why personal details are processed and on what legal basis
  • How long you keep the collected personal details
  • To whom the personal details are communicated and/or by whom they are processed
  • The rights available to the person involved
  • The security measures you have taken to protect the personal details

General terms and conditions

Transparency on your website about professional agreements with your (potential) customers also contribute to a safe and trusted internet experience. As a company, your general terms and conditions are of great importance here. In your general terms and conditions, you lay down provisions relating to, for example, delivery, liability, and payment. By determining this in advance, you save a lot of time, your customers know where they stand, and major risks can be avoided.

It is therefore advisable to place an up-to-date version of the general terms and conditions on your website. It is important that your general terms and conditions are adapted to the target group (B2C or B2B) and the specific serviced or products you offer as a company.

Having general terms and conditions on your website does not mean that you can automatically fall back on them. Your general terms and conditions must me enforceable. This means that you can only rely on them if the customer i) could reasonably be aware of their content before the agreement was concluded and ii) accepted them. To be sure that you have adequately addressed this, we recommend consulting an expert who considers your specific context and target group.

 

Do you need further help with the above, the correct implementation or do you still have questions? Do not hesitate to contact us, we will be happy to help you.