Recently, one of my clients, who is quite well-versed in online marketing has asked the firm that created their website to create a GDPR overlay that covers the entire page, and doesn’t let users through unless they accept the placement of cookies in their browsers. He wanted to play by the rules.
At first, I didn’t think much of it – if someone wants to follow the rules this strictly, then they have all my respect. I asked the developer that created the website if this overlay hid the site’s code from Google’s crawling robot, and the answer was that it’s not hidden at all, and that Google can, in fact, see and crawl it. I checked it, and confirmed it to be true.
Let me add that we’ve also checked the website of some of the biggest multinational corporations and saw that they immediately place all (or almost all) of their cookies the moment a user opens one of the pages. Microsoft, Apple, and Media Markt all spam your system with their cookies, and even the Hungarian website Index.hu is guilty of this practice, regardless of what you click on afterwards:
https://www.microsoft.com/hu-hu/
This site places 4 cookies, but none of them are from Analytics.
On the top of the website, there’s a bar with some text stating:
“This site uses cookies for analytics, personalized content and ads. By continuing to browse this site, you agree to this use.”
https://www.mediamarkt.hu/
This site places 25 cookies, with Analytics trackers among them.
At the bottom of the page, they state the following:
“Our website, mediamarkt.hu uses several cookies and services to provide full functionality for our visitors, as well as to make it more informative and user-friendly for them. It is important for us that you can easily browse our website, which is why we focus strongly on its constant development. This involves saving your preferences and filling forms automatically so that you don’t have to put in the same information every time. It is also important to us that you see the kind of content that you are really interested in, and that makes your online activities easier. If you click the “Accept” button, you agree to the use of cookies. If you do not want to accept every cookie, visit the cookie settings page. For further information, read our privacy policy and cookie policy.”
If we click the “Accept” button, then we get one more cookie, and the text disappears from the bottom of the page for good.
https://index.hu/
This site places 14 cookies.
The text on the bottom reads:
“You can read about how we keep your data safe in our data protection policy. Our pages use HTTP cookies for better functionality.”
When we click the “Ok” button, we get one more cookie, after which the bar with the text disappears.
