Privado released its State of Website Privacy Report 2024, revealing alarming privacy trends on websites across Europe and the US. Privado tested top-visited websites for GDPR and CPRA compliance, uncovering that 75% fail to meet the standards.
Europe has introduced strict privacy laws under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), requiring websites to obtain opt-in consent. However, as per the study, 74% of the top websites in Europe fail to comply with these rules. In the US, there is California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) which requires websites in the US to have opt-out consent but 76% websites seem to not have it.
Privado presented this report after the US and Europe have started to fine websites which are not following CPRA and GDPR. GDPR fined many websites because of privacy issues, and top ten fines were all accounted for violating consent compliance on websites. Amazon got the biggest fine because of violation of consent compliance, with $880+ million as it was targeting users for ads without taking their consent first. This has made users wary of their privacy because companies are sharing their personal data to third parties too.
The State of Website Privacy report also found that websites share personal data of users to an average of 17 advertising third parties in the US, while an average of 6 advertising third parties in Europe. Many websites are using cookie banners to show privacy regulatory authorities that they are complying with privacy laws but they actually have those banners misconfigured. 69% of the non-compliant websites in the US are at compliant risks by CPRA, while 31% of the non-compliant websites in Europe at compliant risks by GDPR.
According to the report, "Media, ecommerce, and lifestyle (B2C technology) websites make up 83% of the top 100 websites (in the US) and have the three highest rates of non-compliance risk. Because all three industries rely heavily on advertising to drive and monetize website traffic, these websites tend to share user data with the most advertising, marketing, and analytics partners to improve measurement and performance."
31% of top websites in the US and 21% of top websites in Europe share user data with third parties, followed by sharing data with advertising third parties (17% in US and 6% in Europe). More than 70% of the most visited websites in the US and Europe are sharing personal data with Google Ads and Facebook Ads. This widespread practice raises concerns about user privacy, as these platforms gain access to sensitive information for targeted advertising purposes. There are many consent management platforms (CMPs) that can manage consent banners on different websites but they are not always effective. Continuous website monitoring is important to mitigate privacy risks on different platforms. To get the best digital tracking for privacy and related issues, it is best to use privacy coding scanning along with CMPs for mobile apps and websites.
Read next:
• Social Media Apps Dominate November Downloads: Instagram Leads, Threads Tops iOS
• Most of the Metaverse Platforms Lack Proper Security Measures and this Can Make them Vulnerable to Attackers
Europe has introduced strict privacy laws under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), requiring websites to obtain opt-in consent. However, as per the study, 74% of the top websites in Europe fail to comply with these rules. In the US, there is California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) which requires websites in the US to have opt-out consent but 76% websites seem to not have it.
Privado presented this report after the US and Europe have started to fine websites which are not following CPRA and GDPR. GDPR fined many websites because of privacy issues, and top ten fines were all accounted for violating consent compliance on websites. Amazon got the biggest fine because of violation of consent compliance, with $880+ million as it was targeting users for ads without taking their consent first. This has made users wary of their privacy because companies are sharing their personal data to third parties too.
The State of Website Privacy report also found that websites share personal data of users to an average of 17 advertising third parties in the US, while an average of 6 advertising third parties in Europe. Many websites are using cookie banners to show privacy regulatory authorities that they are complying with privacy laws but they actually have those banners misconfigured. 69% of the non-compliant websites in the US are at compliant risks by CPRA, while 31% of the non-compliant websites in Europe at compliant risks by GDPR.
According to the report, "Media, ecommerce, and lifestyle (B2C technology) websites make up 83% of the top 100 websites (in the US) and have the three highest rates of non-compliance risk. Because all three industries rely heavily on advertising to drive and monetize website traffic, these websites tend to share user data with the most advertising, marketing, and analytics partners to improve measurement and performance."
31% of top websites in the US and 21% of top websites in Europe share user data with third parties, followed by sharing data with advertising third parties (17% in US and 6% in Europe). More than 70% of the most visited websites in the US and Europe are sharing personal data with Google Ads and Facebook Ads. This widespread practice raises concerns about user privacy, as these platforms gain access to sensitive information for targeted advertising purposes. There are many consent management platforms (CMPs) that can manage consent banners on different websites but they are not always effective. Continuous website monitoring is important to mitigate privacy risks on different platforms. To get the best digital tracking for privacy and related issues, it is best to use privacy coding scanning along with CMPs for mobile apps and websites.
Read next:
• Social Media Apps Dominate November Downloads: Instagram Leads, Threads Tops iOS
• Most of the Metaverse Platforms Lack Proper Security Measures and this Can Make them Vulnerable to Attackers
