Most websites are required to have a privacy policy that demonstrates transparency to users about how their personal information is being handled. Cookie consent allows users to decide whether they are comfortable with cookies being used and gives them the option to opt out if they choose. By having a clear privacy policy and obtaining consent for data collection and cookie usage, websites can reduce their liability in case of disputes or legal issues related to user privacy.
- How to check a website for a privacy policy and an accessible cookie consent.
- Both are important to ensure legal compliance and user accessibility.
- The privacy policy should include a last updated date and contact information.
- The cookie consent should be easily accessible via keyboard navigation and provide clear information about the cookies used on the site.
- A tool like Termageddon can be used to generate a privacy policy and cookie consent that meets legal requirements.
- The video provides examples of how to check for these elements on a website.
Transcript
Welcome back to the Accessibility Quick Audit Series. I’m Gen Herres from the Easy A11y Guide, and in this video, I’ll cover how to check a website for a privacy policy and an accessible cookie consent. You want to check for a privacy policy as most websites are legally required to have them.
And you want to check for an accessible cookie banner because websites, in many cases, have inaccessible ones. If a website has an inaccessible cookie consent, then the person cannot legally consent, which means you are probably violating several laws, and that can get you in some legal hot water.
Look for the privacy policy
First, we’re going to look at the privacy policy. We are going to check that one exists by looking for the word privacy, generally found in the website’s footer. Then we are going to use the keyboard to navigate to the Privacy Policy page. Once we are there, we’re going to look for two items. The first is going to be the last updated date, and the second will be contact information. These two pieces of information are required by most privacy laws, and if they are missing, then likely the website has a subpar privacy policy.
This particular check can be done by someone with limited training in accessibility testing. If you can’t find the link, then you’ll mark it as a content failure. Similarly, if you find the policy, but the updated date or the contact information is missing, you’ll also want to mark that as a content failure and suggest that they get their privacy policy reviewed by an International Association of privacy professionals or IAPP, lawyer, or get their policy generated by an appropriate privacy policy generator. I personally use Termageddon.
Look for cookie consent
Next, we’ll look for cookie consent. Not all websites have them, and even if they do have them, they aren’t always presented to all visitors. For example, I’m in Maryland, in the United States, and there aren’t currently any laws which require me to see a Cookie Consent banner, so a website may have one but may not display it to me.
If I don’t find one, then I just note that none was found, and therefore, I didn’t find any issues with it. If the cookie consent does exist, then it is normally a modal window or overlay. So it should be the first item that I reach via keyboard navigation since it is on top of or blocking content that is below it. And if I can’t see content, if I can’t reach content, then that is a clear violation of WCAG or the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Examples of checking for a privacy policy and cookie consent
So let’s take a look at a couple of examples of testing these two items. Here we are on Usable Net again. I’m going to the website footer. Once I’m in the website footer, I’m going to use my mouse and I’m going to just click down here. That will set my keyboard focus into my footer.
Next, I hit the tab key and that gives me keyboard navigation. I go to the Privacy Policy and I will press return on my keyboard to visit that link. The first thing I’m looking for is a last updated date. Good news. It’s right here at the top of the page, and it tells me exactly when it was last updated. The next thing I’m going to do is search for contact information.
To do this, I’m just going to do a find on the page on the word contact. Since it’s privacy policy, it uses the word contact a lot, so I keep going until I find what I’m looking for. Here we have contact information.
We welcome your comments or questions about this policy. You may contact us at the email address. And that’s what we’re expecting to see. So I would mark this website as privacy policy found and no issues with the privacy policy.
Now we are going to check cookie consent. I am going to visit the Termageddon website because here I have a nice cookie consent. Now I’m going to test for cookie consent. Here I’m going to put my cursor into the URL bar. Then I am going to hit tab on the keyboard.
I see a skip to content link. I am now in the privacy settings modal region where I have my cookie consent. The first thing I can see that is telling me about my privacy settings. I can get to the nice close box if I just want to dismiss this. I can access the marketing, the functional, different cookies.
I can see the different settings. I can save them, I can deny. I can accept all. I can basically go through and do whatever I would like. If I want to, I can just close it by hitting return, and it goes away, and it’s gone now.
That is what I’m looking for, the fact that I can reach it quickly by the keyboard, that I can navigate it by the keyboard, and that I can get rid of it by the keyboard. If I was not able to quickly interact with the cookie consent, then I would mark that as a failure. If I was not able to reach it at all via the keyboard, then I would mark it up as definitely needing to be replaced. I would mark this failure as website add-on, as it is typically a third-party service that is added to a website.
Thanks for watching. I’m Gen Herres from the Easy A11y Guide, where we try to make accessibility easier to implement through done-for-you services, tools, and processes. If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up. It really helps our channel.
You can subscribe to our channel for more accessibility tips and to be notified when new videos are released. For more information on web accessibility, including services, tutorials, and more, please visit easya11yguide.com. Thank you so much again for watching, and I look forward to seeing you in the next video.