Why is cookie consent (per GDPR) not core Shopify functionality?

aj007
Excursionist
33 0 71

Shopify, this question is for you...

 

If we have a website with European users, 'unambiguous, affirmative consent' to cookies is not optional. It's the law as per EU GDPR, with huge fines for non-compliance (or at best lots of time-wasting admin work if challenged on it).

  

Just like we can't run an online store without payment processing functionality, we can't run an online store selling to Europeans without a GDPR-compliant cookie consent mechanism.

 

So why does Shopify fob-off GDPR-compliant cookie consent to 3rd party developers?? This is core, non-optional functionality.

 

I've spent a lot of time looking at the 3rd party 'cookie bar/banner' offerings on the Shopify App Store: 

  • Most just give a false sense of 'GDPR compliance' but don't log consent (the EU can ask to prove you got it), or block all cookies until consent is granted. The positive App reviews make it clear that many shop owners consider GDPR a box-ticking exercise, and think they're covered when really they've only added a useless decoration to their site.
  • Some 3rd party GDPR Shopify Apps seem to open new vectors for privacy breaches. Sure it would be great if Data Subject Access Requests, etc. were self-serve instead of a manual chore for the shop owner. But the current Apps don't seem to properly challenge that the requestor is indeed the person in question. Especially those that claim to be 'Compatible with both registered and guest accounts' - how do you even verify a 'guest' is the same person from the original transaction(s), as 'guests' are by nature rather anonymous? You're actually creating a privacy nightmare if you start making your customers' data and order history available to strangers (who may only need to know your customers' email addresses). 
  • I've asked the above App developers for their views on the above. I have a collection of auto-responses and Zen Desk tickets, but zero replies from real humans. Which suggests there's no proper support for these Apps either. 

 

Robust cookie consent should not be functionality that shop owners need to waste time searching Apps for. Or worse installing Apps that might be dangerously complacent, and indeed making their GDPR problems worse.

 

When is Shopify going to offer GDPR-compliant cookie consent as part of its core functionality?

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