Wordpress Privacy Policy and Cookies
If you are taking your first steps in the world of blogging or website creation, you have probably chosen WordPress to build your site. It is important to note that when a user visits your page for the first time, they are generally asked to accept the privacy policy and cookies, which are generated and stored in their browser.
Below, we will provide a brief explanation of what each policy involves and how to implement them from the WordPress administration panel.
Privacy Policy
Privacy policies play a fundamental role in ensuring transparency and protecting user data on a website. In WordPress, it is crucial to provide clear and complete information about how user data is collected, used, and protected.
Although some websites may not collect personal data, most do. This usually happens when users leave comments, social media buttons are implemented, or a newsletter subscription form is added to the site.
Therefore, whenever a website collects any personal data such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, etc., it is mandatory to have a privacy policy. This policy must be written on a separate subpage and linked from any part of the website.
Updating WordPress to the latest versions is the most optimal way to ensure that your website has a privacy policy page by default. The version that introduced this feature was 4.9.6, but it is recommended to update to even newer versions to ensure the integrity of your users’ data:
For the privacy policy to be as complete as possible, it should provide all of the following information:
- Identification of the data controller and contact information
- What personal data you collect and where you store it
- How personal data is collected
- Whether data will be shared with third parties and their identifying details
- Link to the cookie policy
- How and where users can exercise their rights
This information may vary depending on how you process your visitors' data. In the following link, we provide an example of the WordPress.org privacy policy page:
How to create a privacy page
There are mainly two ways to add a privacy page in WordPress: manually or with the help of a plugin. We recommend doing it from the WordPress settings.
Add the privacy page manually
To create a new privacy page in WordPress, go to the “Settings” menu in the WordPress dashboard and click on “Privacy.” When accessing this section, WordPress will display a message explaining the importance of adding a privacy policy page and a link to view a template example.
To create the new page, click the “Create” button. You will then access the default WordPress template, where you can edit and write the necessary information.
Cookie Policy
Cookies are small text files that websites place on a visitor’s device to store information about their online activities. They are essential for the proper functioning of many website features, including content personalization, user session tracking, and data collection for analytics.
Recent privacy data regulations have strengthened these privacy concerns, specifically focusing on the use and consent of cookies on websites. In this situation, websites are required to obtain clear and informed user consent before tracking their behavior with cookies.
Visitors have the right to decide whether they want to accept the use of these cookies, so a clear option to Reject All must be displayed.
You can find more information about the WordPress cookie notice/policy at the following link.
WordPress recommends installing a plugin to display an automatic banner for users who have not yet accepted/rejected your website’s cookies. At cdmon, we recommend using one of the most popular WordPress plugins for this banner, the CookieYes plugin.
Once installed and activated, you can access the plugin management from the WordPress administrator sidebar.
From there, you must connect to the CookieYes WebApp, which requires selecting a plan to use the plugin. They offer Premium versions, but you can use the free version:
From this same window, you can customize the text, color, layout, and size of the cookie banner that visitors will see. At this stage, you can adjust the parameters according to your preferences:
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