It was shaping up to be a good Sunday, then I saw this advert (company details scrubbed).
Targeted at small businesses, of course, because they're unlikely to have the resources to critically evaluate this nonsense.
This is just one example in the quagmire of cyber security and data protection deceptive marketing, but on a relaxed Sunday it was one straw too many.
Scanning your website for 🍪 is something you should consider, but it's a tiny, tiny fragment of GDPR. On top of that the alarmist advertising around GDPR has meant that when speaking to small businesses, it's commonly stated as their biggest concern - despite the fact that for a micro business following the rules is pretty straightforward.
The actual tool behind this is a cookie scanner and consent manager. So it's selling on the old 'GDPR is all about consent' myth.
It just irritates me that this sort of nonsense abounds, and disgusts me that these companies will try and use it to sell their product as a magic solution that makes them GDPR compliant.
But, at least they weren't selling GDPR certified logos, so they're not the worst I've seen.
If you run a small business, and you do have questions about security and GDPR, we're building something at
@security_bore - it's not a silver bullet tool, it's a service where you can ask and get answers to your questions.
We want to make sure it's useful, so we're looking for people to help us build it in a way that helps you and your business (whether you're a one-person band, or up to the lower end of medium business). If you're interested in being part of it, shoot over a message. One day we're likely to charge for it, but we want to make sure it's as valuable as possible first.