Privacy and cookies

By default, Open Forms only uses (first party) strictly necessary cookies (although sometimes confusingly called “functionality cookies”). These cookies are needed to make Open Forms work: the browser has to remember which form someone is currently filling out and whether you are authenticated or not.

For this purpose, Open Forms does not require consent according to the GDPR (although local laws may differ in this aspect). You are encouraged to at least add a link to your privacy policy to explain why these cookies are required.

Pivacy related settings

There are 3 related settings to privacy:

Link to privacy policy

When you have an existing privacy policy, you can link to the privacy policy page or document from Open Forms. When enabled, this link is shown in the footer and can also be shown when asking for permission before submitting a form (see below).

Ask permission to process user data before submitting a form

If you created a form that asks for personal data, it’s a good idea to enable this option to make the user aware they are sending personal data to your organization. When enabled, a checkbox is shown on the summary page that users need to check before they can submit the form. The message next to the checkbox is configurable and can optionally contain the link to the configured privacy policy by using {% privacy_policy %} in the label.

Ask for cookie consent

This is also known as the cookie bar or cookie notice. You can create an overview of your cookies and ask for the users consent when they first arrive at a form. All non-required cookies are rejected until the user explicitly allows these cookies. Required cookies cannot be rejected.

Although this is optional, if you enable any of the settings for analytics you will need to configure some cookie settings first.

Configure cookies

We’ll create 2 cookie groups: Essential cookies (to explain the required cookies) and Analytics cookies (to explain what data is collected and why, and to ask to user for consent).

1. Navigate to Configuration > Cookie groups.

2. Click Add cookie group and fill in:

   • Variable name: required (unique name to identify the cookies)

   • Name: Essential cookies

   • Description: Functionality cookies are used to make the site work. Therefore you cannot refuse them.

   • Is required: checked

   • Is deletable: unchecked

   • Order: 0

3. Click Save and add another, and fill in:

   • Variable name: analytics (unique name to identify the cookies)

   • Name: Analytics cookies

   • Description: We use analytics cookies to ...

   • Is required: unchecked

   • Is deletable: checked

   • Order: 1

4. Click Save.

5. Navigate to Configuration > Cookies.

6. Click Add cookie and fill in:

   • Cookie group: Essential cookies

   • Name: openforms_sessionid

   • Path: /

7. Click Save.

8. For all other cookies, you can create similar entries as done in step 6.

Note

When a user allows certain cookies, these cookies can immediately be set in the browser. If the user later declines these cookies, the cookies that are defined in the declined groups are deleted. If the configured cookie names do not match the actual cookie names, they are not deleted!

Configure privacy

1. Navigate to Configuration > General configuration.

2. Scroll down to Privacy & cookies and consider the fields below:

   • Ask permission to process data: Check this option to show a checkbox on the overview page of all forms

   • Privacy policy URL: Your main website’s privacy policy URL

   • Privacy policy label: The text to show next to the checkbox. For example: Yes, I read and agree to the {% privacy_policy %}.

3. Scroll to the bottom and click Save.