This IONOS onboarding guide will show you how to handle data privacy compliance on the D website builder using Termly's intuitive solutions for consent management and legal policy creation.
Consent management is a critical piece of the compliance process. It is a legal requirement for many businesses and one of the most vital steps to protect your customers’ or website visitors’ privacy.
Let's begin by helping you get set up with our consent manager to scan your website, generate a cookie report and cookie policy, create and install a consent banner, and choose a cookie blocking method.
Whether you're a new user looking to install Termly or a returning user, you may access the Termly dashboard via the app store side bar by searching for Termly.
Your cookie scan should already be complete. The scanner automatically finds and categorizes cookies for you.
Click "View Report" in the Scan Report module on your Dashboard. Or, in the sidebar navigation on the left side, click "Scan Report" under "Consent Management."
*If your scan failed, please ensure your site is published and scan again.
You will need to review and categorize any cookies listed under the "Unclassified" tab in your scan report and ensure all other cookies are correctly categorized.
Here's our video showing you how to do that:
Further Reading:
Termly automatically generates a cookie policy customized with your scan results.
You must make this policy easily accessible by embedding it on your site using HTML, a code snippet, or a URL. Most companies choose to put this link in their site footer.
To embed via HTML, first drag in the HTML widget then copy and paste code from above.
Further Reading:
Use one of our built-in consent banner themes or customize your banner colors, display style, fonts, and more.
Here's our video showing you how:
Further Reading:
Next, you will need to review your banner text and consent settings. Our default banner settings are based on region and are set to meet major privacy laws like the GDPR and CCPA.
We generate and insert the consent banner code snippet for you. All you need to do is enable the banner via the Consent Banner page and clicking the toggle found in the top right of the page. This will inject the banner into the <head> section of your website.
*If you are injecting custom code on the page, please ensure that scripts are added to the body-end section and not the head section so it does not conflict with the banner.
Further Reading:
Some individuals and businesses place their cookie consent banner on their website and stop there. However, if you stop there, you are NOT compliant with the GDPR and other laws.
As part of proper compliance, you must implement a solution to block cookies so they are not served before a visitor clicks “Accept” on your banner.
We offer several ways to block cookies:
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The simplest way is to use our Auto Blocker, a built-in Termly feature that automatically blocks cookies before a website visitor gives their consent. Make sure to read up on how to customize Auto Blocker’s behavior if you want to customize which third-party scripts are allowed to run and when.
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You can also manually block cookies by following these steps.
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If you use Google Tag Manager, please review these steps. Auto Blocker will not work with third-party scripts deployed via Google Tag Manager.
Review our troubleshooting steps if you encounter issues after installing your consent banner.
Further Reading:
If you don’t already have one, you need to provide a way for your users to submit requests to access, edit, transfer, or delete their personal data. Termly offers a DSAR form that you can embed using a URL or HTML. We also provide information on how to respond to a request.
Further Reading:
Your visitors need to be able to change their cookie preferences at any time. Therefore, we offer a preferences button that you can copy and paste anywhere onto your website.
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Congrats! You have now set up your site with a consent management solution that is compliant in accordance with international regulations.
Consent management is not the only legal requirement under GDPR, CCPA, and other laws. Many of these laws also require a privacy policy. In addition, app stores and third-party tools can also require a published privacy policy to use their services.
While the GDPR and CCPA require a privacy policy, other policies, like terms and conditions and shipping and return policies, are not legally required but can help with customer management and expectations.
Your Termly subscription offers several policy generators to help you create customized, compliant legal agreements:
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Privacy policy generator: A privacy policy explains how and why you collect, use, and share a customer’s personal information. Privacy policies are mandatory under the GDPR and CCPA. Google Analytics, the Google Play Store, Apple’s App Store, and other tools also require that you publish a privacy policy.
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Terms and Condions generator Terms and conditions — also called Terms of Use or Terms of Service — are a legal agreement between you and your users. These legal terms protect your business from inappropriate user behavior or IP theft and make it clear when and how you can terminate a user.
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EULA Generator: An End-user License Agreement (EULA) is a legal agreement that your customers must agree to before downloading your app.
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Disclaimer Generator: Disclaimers protect your business against legal claims. A disclaimer can notify your site visitors that you will not be held responsible for any damages that arise from the use of your website, products, or services.
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Return policy generator A return policy outlines information about returns, including how and when a return can be made, refund information, and more.
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Shipping policy generator: A shipping policy can help set customer expectations and prevent disputes over deliveries. It can include information on shipping fees, customs information, dropshipping, and more.
You can create any of the above policies directly from your Termly dashboard:
Creating a policy using our generators is as simple as answering a few questions about your business and then embedding the policy onto your website using one of the methods discussed in the link below.
Further Reading:
Installing Termly’s consent manager and creating the necessary legal policies is one of the most significant steps to ensure privacy compliance.
However, if you would like to increase the data protection efforts of your business, we suggest you review these additional steps:
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Audit your data collection and storage: What data are you collecting from customers? Where is it stored? Data breaches or leaks are not just reputationally devastating. They can also be considered a violation of data privacy laws if you do not report them correctly. Understanding where personal data is stored can also help when it comes time to respond to DSARs.
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Review your third-party services: Do you send any customer data to third parties? What are their policies for storing customer data? You may be held partially responsible if you send customer data to a third party and they have a privacy violation or data breach. Prevent this by carefully selecting your third-party services, reviewing their privacy policies and data processes, and limiting the amount and type of personal data you send.
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Document data-related processes: You may consider how you process and handle data, how you will protect sensitive data, what you will do in the case of a data breach, and how you will respond to DSARs.
You can find all our video guides, walkthroughs, and more on our YouTube channel.
Termly has an extensive support article library with answers to any questions you may have. If you need further assistance, don’t hesitate to contact our support team.
Get answers to questions about customizing your consent banner, how the cookie scanner works, accessing user consent logs, DSAR, and more:
Learn more about Auto Blocker, Termly’s feature that simplifies the cookie blocking process:
Get answers to questions on how to edit or update your policies after they are published and other common questions:
Answers to common questions about the GDPR and other data privacy laws:
More in-depth articles about data privacy laws, types of legal policies, cookies, privacy news, and more can be found on our resources page.