Overview

Online communities often use website features such as cookies and tracking tools; this means privacy- and data-protection requirements become even more of a necessity. As a result, it's important that these sites implement a third-party cookie consent-management solution, often called a Consent Management Platform (CMP).

A third-party cookie consent-management solution (a cookie-management tool) helps visitors to these sites understand how:

cookies are being used in their visit and
they can self-manage their cookie preferences.

Additionally, where required by law, a cookie-management tool helps ensure that non-essential cookies are not activated until the appropriate consent has been obtained.

Your responsibilities

As a Super Admin of a community site, it's up to you to ensure that your site remains compliant with all applicable privacy- and data-protection regulations. Therefore, you must:

procure a cookie-management tool from a third-party vendor;
understand the technologies that are used on your site; and
ensure that the cookie-management tool used in your community site is appropriately configured.

Implementation requirements

To implement your selected third-party cookie-management tool, you have to add the necessary JavaScript code to your community.

IMPORTANT: The JavaScript code has to be provided to you by your third-party CMP vendor.

Specifically, you must:

Select a third-party CMP vendor that meets your organization's legal and compliance requirements.
Add the vendor-provided JavaScript code to your community site, typically within the <head> section of each page or through your site's tag-management solution.
Configure the cookie-management tool to categorize cookies and tracking technologies used on your site.
Ensure that non-essential scripts and non-essential cookies are blocked until the appropriate visitor consent has been obtained, if required.
Maintain the consent configuration as cookies, scripts, and technologies on your site change over time.

Third-party JavaScript

The cookie-management tool operates by loading the JavaScript that was provided by your third-party CMP vendor. This JavaScript is hosted and maintained by that third-party vendor and is responsible for:

Displaying the cookie-consent banner or preference-management center.
Recording visitor consent preferences.
Managing the activation of cookies and tracking technologies based on those preferences.
Storing consent records (when supported by that third-party vendor).

Because this functionality is provided by the third-party vendor, you are responsible for adding and maintaining their JavaScript on your community.

To learn how to add the JavaScript code to your community site, see Display Third-Party Code Across Your Site.

Customer responsibilities

It is your responsibility to:

Contract with a third-party CMP vendor.
Add the required third-party JavaScript for the cookie-management tool to your community.
Configure cookie categories and consent behavior according to your legal and business requirements.
Test the implementation to verify that visitor consent is collected and enforced as expected.
Maintain the implementation as community content, integrations, add-ons, and privacy requirements evolve.
Scan for and monitor new cookies.

See our scanning-guidance document, Third-Party Cookie Scanning.

Additional considerations

Organizations should work with their legal, privacy, and compliance teams:

to determine the appropriate consent model for their jurisdictions and
to ensure that the selected cookie-management tool is configured in accordance with applicable privacy regulations, such as the:
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR),
- UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR),
- ePrivacy Directive requirements,
- California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), and
...other applicable laws.

The following knowledge base articles provide additional information on this topic.

To learn how to add the necessary third-party JavaScript code to your community site, see Display Third-Party Code Across Your Site.
Third-Party Cookie Scanning describes "cookie scanning," including tips and cookie-scan limitations.
Cookies Used in Higher Logic Thrive Community describes the cookies that are used in your Higher Logic community.

Higher Logic policies

Higher Logic's Acceptable Use Policy
The Tracking Technologies section of Higher Logic's Privacy Notice (Higher Logic's use of cookies)

Implement Your Own Third-Party Cookie-Management Tool