Implementing Cookie Policies with Python and Flask

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To set the stage, let’s set the scene. You have this amazing web application that you’ve been working on for months (or maybe even years), but suddenly you realize that it needs to be GDPR compliant. Oh no! What are you going to do? Well, bro, you could either hire a lawyer or you could just add some code to your Flask app and call it a day.

Now, I’m not saying that hiring a lawyer is a bad idea (in fact, I highly recommend it), but if you want to save yourself some money and have a little fun in the process, then keep reading!

To set the stage, let’s create a new Flask app called “cookie_policy”. You can do this by running `flask init` in your terminal. This will generate a basic structure for your application that you can customize to fit your needs.

Next, we need to add some code to our main file (app.py) to handle the cookie policy. Here’s what it might look like:

# Import necessary modules
from flask import Flask, render_template, request, redirect, url_for
import os

# Create a new instance of Flask and set up some basic configurations
app = Flask(__name__)
app.config['SECRET_KEY'] = 'your-secret-key'

# Define a route for the homepage
@app.route('/')
def index():
    # Check if the user has accepted our cookie policy
    if not request.cookies.get('cookie_policy'):
        # If they haven't, show them a popup with our terms and conditions
        return render_template('terms.html')
    
    # Otherwise, redirect them to our main page
    else:
        return redirect(url_for('home'))
        
# Define a route for accepting the terms and conditions
@app.route('/terms', methods=['POST'])
def accept():
    # If the user accepts our terms and conditions, set a cookie for 365 days
    response = redirect(url_for('home'))
    response.set_cookie('cookie_policy', 'true')
    
    return response
        
# Define a route for rejecting the terms and conditions
@app.route('/terms/reject')
def reject():
    # If the user rejects our terms and conditions, delete their session cookie and show them a message
    response = redirect(url_for('home'))
    response.set_cookie('session', '', expires=0)
    
    return render_template('terms-rejected.html')
        
# Run the application if this file is executed directly
if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run()

In this code, we’re using Flask to create a basic web application that checks if the user has accepted our cookie policy when they first visit our site (using `request.cookies.get(‘cookie_policy’)`). If they haven’t, we show them a popup with our terms and conditions (using `render_template(‘terms.html’)`).

If the user accepts our terms and conditions by clicking on a button or checking a box, we set a cookie for 365 days using `response.setcookie(‘cookie_policy’, ‘true’)`. This will allow them to access our site without being prompted again for 1 year (or until they clear their cookies).

If the user rejects our terms and conditions by clicking on a button or checking a box, we delete their session cookie using `response.setcookie(‘session’, ”, expires=0)` and show them a message saying that they can’t access our site unless they accept our policy (using `render_template(‘terms-rejected.html’)`).

And there you have it, A simple yet effective way to implement cookie policies using Python and Flask. Of course, this is just one example of how you could do it, but hopefully it gives you a good starting point for your own projects.

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