Cookie Control and turn off options

[Rickard]

By law, you are now obliged not only to inform visitors that your website uses cookies, but also to offer them the opportunity to disable cookies of various kinds.
For example, it is common to offer visitors the opportunity to accept or refuse the following types of cookies:
Necessary
Functional
Statistical
marketing
Unclassified

I have SMF 2.0.19 and SimplePortal 2.3.7
Is there any kind of customisation or add-ons you can install, or is there anyone selling the service to add this kind of functionality.
Not only is this required by law, but now google is also putting pressure on us to follow the law to be able to show their ads on our websites, so it could be a significant economic loss if google were to turn off their ads.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

AFAIK the default cookies set by SMF are strictly necessary for the software to function, so you do not actually need to offer any choices unless you have other (added) cookies at use, you do need a privacy policy and explanation of cookies used however. Strictly necessary cookies do not collect personal information and do not require user consent under privacy laws such as the GDPR and the CPRA.

[Rickard]

I have about 12 different other cookies, due to advertising, just google as far as i know.
Tha ads are both in forum and portal.

[Rickard]

List of cookies

[Kindred]

That's alot of cookies.

There is no way in smf to control the control the cookie delivery,  since the smf cookie is required.

Iirc, 2.0.19 required a mod to be fully gdpr compliant...  you should upgrade to 2.1.4

[Rickard]

Yes, i understand, but my forums are quite a lot modified, it would cost me quite a few 1000 USD to make the changes to the new platform. (I am not competent enough to do it myself)
Its really strange that functions required by law is not a standard feature, my version is not that old...
I guess i need to ask for a quotation for the job needed.
Shure that the cookies control options are present in the latest version?
All cookies except the SMF cookie has got to do with google ads.
Changes needed to the portal, forum, childboards, mobile theme and so on, its no small projekt.

[Kindred]

No. There are noncookie controls at all.  Not in 2.0.x and not in 2.1.x

As I said, the smf cookie is required to function.  So the only requirement in smf is a notice that it will be there.

The fact that you have adverts or other modifications that add more cookies is outside of the scope of smf requirements and is a you thing.

Smf 2.1.x has the registration agreement and the privacy statement along with the other minimum gdpr requirements. That's all we need and that's all we programmed.


Regarding upgrading,  think about it sooner rather than later.  2.0.19 already potentially breaks on anything higher than php 8.0 which is,  itself already near/at eol.

[Rickard]

OK, well as usual, Swedish government is the only country in the world that makes efforts to abide by the law...
I have to see where this goes, i might just kill the forums if the cost to upgrade is to high.
Ad revenue goes down every year anyway, google and facebook takes a larger and larger part of the market.
Thank you for the support.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

If ALL your cookies are really related to Google Adsense, you can just use Google's tools. It will basically do everything for you.

[Kindred]

BTW: regarding "abide by the law" --   the GDPR is possibly the worst written legislation to make it into law... (and that's saying something, since I'm from the US)

GDPR was written by people who had no idea about technology and was then further applied differently by each and every member of the EU...   So there is no "one law" to follow as far as GDPR goes.

[Arantor]

It's a shame that there is so much misinformation being spouted.

Cookies are not, and never were, part of GDPR. Honestly, you should actually *read* the GDPR as opposed to relying on interpretations of it from third parties. You might find the actual wording a lot less offensive once you see what it is that they're actually trying to do.

The cookie law is part of PECR instead. And the reason it's so obnoxious is because it is radically clear that companies make enough money off selling your profiling data that they have essentially maliciously complied with the law.

Because that is what it is, malicious compliance to make it as annoying to you, the end user, as possible so you just shrug and accept it. Rather than challenging the cookies or considering if alternative options are appropriate.

When you see some of these consent forms show you that your profile is sold to literal hundreds of companies, no wonder they don't want you to withhold your data.

But don't *ever* side with the corporates on this, it's not in your interest. And the EU understands that. They're trying to show you how you are being exploited, and defending the corps just makes you complicit in your own exploitation.

[Kindred]

OK, fair enough on the difference between GDPR and PECR... 

[Rickard]

Since everyone leaves cookies on my computer, no-one wins?
That also a way to look at this issue.
Trying to avoid this would make me crazy.
The worst malicious result, is me beeing forced to accept cookies on every single site i visit, maybe 50 times/day.
I will look at googles settings, thank you Aleksi