Transparency = Trust

Open Cookie™ is a free, easy-to-install website plugin, which allows users to view and manage their cookies. A few of its features include cookie transparency, acquiring user consent, and a data management system to help users understand and manage the website cookies in their browser.

Open Cookie helps websites comply with the EU Cookie Law, which requires websites to:

1. Provide the user with clear and comprehensive information about the purposes of the storage of, or access to, that information
2. Gain the user’s consent to use cookies

How can I use it on my website?

First, download and install the Open Cookie files to your web server. Then, simply create a link on you site to the Open Cookie page.  We suggest placing the link in your site footer or user account pages.

The Open Cookie page shows the user the cookies the site is using to collect data about them in a management interface. Users can… You are free to modify the Open Cookie page to fit within you site design. However we do require you display the”powered by HIP” logo as a courtesy for providing you the free plugin. Here is screenshot showing the simple Open Cookie page in action:

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Click here to see the system in action on an external website (CookieCert.com, a cookie database website). This example uses an IFRAME to embed the Open Cookie page into the CookieCert site design.

 

Features

 

Is this a cookie consent plugin?

Open Cookie’s management page can be used to gain user consent. Most cookie consent technologies involve asking the user for permission to create cookies, usually via an intrusive popup mechanism. Open Cookie is not a popup, it is simply a page to which your user can navigate to view the cookies created by your site.

If you feel an interruption is necessary, there is no reason you cannot also use a separate consent plugin elsewhere on your site like Cookie Cert. Once you have gained the consent of the user, Open Cookie enables you to comply fully with the EU Cookie Law by enabling the user to view those consents at a later date from a single place on your site.

This said, you can use Open Cookie as a consent mechanism. The Open Cookie page on your site does allow you to request user consent for cookies on a global or individual basis. All consented cookies are simply added to the “Cookie Consent” category of cookies. You can access cookies programatically throughout your site as you need to.

The main difference in approach with Open Cookie for gaining consent is that by default consent is implied. The cookies are created and then the user can optout after that fact via the Open Cookie page on your site. Consent popups are supposed to work the other way around, where the cookie is not created until the user gives consent.

Will Open Cookie make my site EU Cookie Law compliant?

Open Cookie can provide cookie transparency for your users. You will need to use a plugin like Cookie Cert to gain user consent.  The combination of these two services will go a long way to bringing your site into compliance with the EU Cookie Law. However, the law is convoluted, and whether your site is compliant or not depends on a number of factors.

However, Open Cookie provides total transparency of your cookies and in such a way that does not directly impact the user experience on your site – unlike consent popups which may annoy the user and get in the way.

Open Cookie allows the user to remove cookies if they wish (configurable by the site administrator), so from a compliance perspective your site provides full transparency.

How about privacy?

Yes, user privacy is assured. All cookie data physically exists in the user’s browser, and Open Cookie is all client side JavaScript (executed by the user’s computer). None of the user’s cookie data goes anywhere, the entire service is performed on the user’s computer.

What kind of cookies can be viewed?

Any type of cookie such as standard cookies, HTML5 cookies and HTTP cookies can be picked up by the plugin for the user to see.

What about Third Party cookies?

Due to browser security restrictions it is not possible to show third party cookies that may have been created by a user visiting your site. However, the plugin is able to identify third party site relationships and inform the user of these for maximum transparency. This feature can be configured on or off by the website administrator.

API, Categories?

You can use Open Cookie not just to read cookie data but also to create cookies. If you do this then you are enhancing your current cookie information with some great featues such as pre-defined categorization and the ability to share and sell that data later on if you wish. You can define your cookies into the following categories. You can modify these categories or add more in the downloaded JavaScript.

• General
• Cookie Consent
• Company-Brand Related
• Products
• Login Data
• Site Tracking
• Visited Page
• Ads
• Keyword-Interest
• Searches
• Favorites
• Purchases
• Ratings
• Preferences
• Other