Privacy startup Privado has issued a report titled ‘State of Website Privacy Report’. This has discovered various rates of non-compliance with privacy regulations and identifies controls needed to avoid privacy fines.
The headline finding is that 75 percent of most visited websites in U.S. and Europe are not compliant with privacy regulations
Despite stricter privacy enforcement in Europe, Privado found a surprising 74 percent of top websites in Europe do not honour opt-in consent as required by Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Although top websites in the U.S. had a similar non-compliance rate of 76 percent for not honouring opt-out consent as required by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), Privado found the median volume of compliance risks to be three-times higher in the U.S.
The State of Website Privacy Report was based on data from Privado’s consent monitoring solution. Six of the 20 largest GDPR fines since 2018 are due to consent compliance violations on websites, with Amazon receiving the second-largest GDPR fine to date, $888M, for targeting users with ads without proper consent in 2021.
In the US, at least 10 companies since 2022 have been fined for violating consent compliance on websites as regulated by CPRA, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), or HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).
With fines mounting and consumers demanding greater privacy, personal data sharing from websites has become a major legal risk for companies worldwide.
Most websites do not honour consent as required by privacy regulations in the US and Europe
To comply with the CPRA amendment to CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), websites in the US must block personal data sharing with advertising third parties if the user opts out of data sharing. To comply with GDPR, websites in Europe must block personal data collection and sharing with third parties unless the user provides opt-in consent. Despite increasing privacy fines in the US and Europe, most websites are not honouring the consent requirements in the US or Europe.
Non-compliant websites in the US average three times more compliance risks than those in Europe
Privacy teams typically lack the visibility and controls to track what third parties are integrated with on their websites and whether they are honoring consent requirements. With teams using so many third parties to optimize marketing and website performance, privacy teams need comprehensive solutions to continuously monitor consent and data flows.
Top websites in the US and Europe typically share data with over 20 3rd parties
Median 3rd Parties Integrated with Top Websites
Consent management platforms alone do not ensure consent compliance
Consent management platforms (CMPs) are effective at managing the complexity of implementing consent banners and data flows across websites, but CMPs can’t sufficiently monitor and validate consent compliance. Privacy teams need continuous website monitoring solutions to mitigate privacy risk at scale. The solutions should provide a real-time view of third parties integrated with their websites, each data element being sent to which third parties, and consent banner functionality.
Privacy code scanning and consent management platforms together can ensure privacy compliance
Privacy code scanning should be used in conjunction with a consent management platform to implement best-in-class digital tracking governance for websites and mobile apps.
Consent management platforms are important for collecting, acting on, and recording consent, but they lack the full visibility and governance to ensure personal data doesn’t improperly leak to advertising third parties.
