The terms “cookie notice” or “cookie banner” refer to a banner, splash page, or other notice that deploys on a website to inform visitors that the site uses cookies. While such disclosures are fairly ubiquitous in the European Union owing to both the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the ePrivacy Directive, historically they have been less common in the United States. As companies consider strategies for complying with the CCPA’s notice, sharing, service provider, and sale provisions, attention is focusing on whether businesses in the United States will begin to use cookie notices as a compliance or risk mitigation tool.
In order to help companies understand and benchmark industry practice, BCLP analyzed a random sample of the homepages of the Fortune 500 to better understand their use of cookie notices and cookie banners.1 As of December 14, 2019, 72% of the Fortune 500 were not deploying a cookie notice on their homepage; while 28% were deploying some form of cookie notice.2 Among those homepages that were not deploying a cookie notice, 88% were permitting third party behavioral advertisers to deploy cookies.3
For more information and resources about the CCPA visit http://www.CCPA-info.com.
This article is part of a multi-part series published by BCLP to help companies understand and implement the General Data Protection Regulation, the California Consumer Privacy Act and other privacy statutes. You can find more information on the CCPA in BCLP’s California Consumer Privacy Act Practical Guide, and more information about the GDPR in the American Bar
1. Using a computer random number generator, BCLP selected 10% of the companies listed among the Fortune 500 in 2019. Revenues for the selected companies ranged from $85 billion to $5 billion. While BCLP did not conduct statistical analysis to determine whether the sample selected accurately represented the range of businesses in the United States, the sample contained companies focused on retail, financials, food, agriculture, manufacturing, entertainment, and energy. BCLP/601337099.
2. Note that some companies in the survey population maintain multiple homepages. For example, a corporation might own several different retail brands each of which maintains its own homepage. The survey focused only on the homepage of the corporate parent (if available) and did not analyze brand-specific practices. If no corporate homepage was available the survey reviewed the website of the company’s most prevalent brand.
3. Behavioral advertising cookies were identified utilizing the Ghostery plug-in to Chrome. BCLP did not independently verify the accuracy of Ghostery’s classification.
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