Red Flags, AI, & Cookies 🍪

We get this question a lot. After all, we’d hate for you to finally book a meeting with that one investor who seems like the perfect fit, only for them to shoot you down because you’ve forgotten a key component (that’s also why we’ve made a free Investment Readiness checklist).

So, what is one of the biggest red flags for investors? 

Having weak intellectual property protection and not safeguarding any unique innovations that are part of your business. 👩‍🔬📲

If you’re a startup with unique products or tech, make sure that your company owns your intellectual property (IP).

Any contracts you have should contain robust IP provisions. And when in dobut, ensure that founders and key staff enter into an IP assigment agreement. 

Because while of course we’re all drawn to your brilliance and charm, VCs are way more likely to invest in your business if you have a unique product/service with a competitive advantage that’s protected. 

Ahhh cookies (the internet-data kind, not the snickerdoodle kind). 🍪They’ve been a thing for a while now, and at this point we’ve all made sure we’re following UK GDPR and cookie guidelines.

Except have we?  

Google itself has been fined over £125 million from the ICO due to non-compliant consent cookies. 💰

And while before it took the ICO a while to catch cookie offenders, now they’re using AI to scour the internet for any non-compliant website (so Google is taking this prettyyy seriously as they’re not too keen on shelling out even more cash). 🥲

As a result, Google is cracking down on businesses to have Consent Mode set up as part of their website’s cookie banner.  

What is Consent Mode?

Basically, it simplifies privacy regulations and compliance by allowing business’s to customise Google tag behaviour depending on which types of cookies users consent to. If only certain cookies are declined by the user, like advertising cookies, then Consent Mode ensures that user's data won’t be used for targeted advertising.  

Why should this matter to you? 

Well, the deadline to have Consent mode set up was March 6^th – so if you haven’t done this already, you really need to get on it ASAP. 🏃‍♀️

Because if you don’t have it enabled, Google will block analytics for your ads. Your business could also lose Google services like Gmail, which would be catastrophic. 🤯

If you're a company or sole trader in the UK that processes personal data, you need to pay a data protection fee to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). For most businesses it’s around £40 to £60 annually, and it funds the work of the ICO. 💷

Now there are some exceptions, but generally speaking you need to pay the fee if: 

1. Your business is electronically processing personal information (‘any detail about a living individual that can be used on its own, or with other data, to identify them’). 👨‍💻

2. You use CCTV for crime prevention related to your business. 📹

Still unsure if this fee applies to your business? No worries, we’ve got you covered. You can check online using the ICO’s free ‘Registration self-assessment’ tool.