EU Cookie Law - A Farce Or A Necessity?

Last week the grace period for compliance with the new EU Cookie Law came to an end. As the 26th May 2012 drew closer, we watched with interest as some of the UK’s leading websites started to unveil their own cookie compliance solutions. Our latest blog post has a look at four websites to see what approach has taken: The ICO, BBC, BT and Amazon. Read post.

What steps have you taken to comply with the new law, if any? Do you think it's a step too far or a complete necessity?

Controversy and confusion has always surrounded this topic, but now so does Irony. Of all websites, the EU itself is not complying with the law. Surely they should be leading by example. Why should the rest of us comply when they are not even practising what they preach?

See below links for all of our posts on this topic:

Cookie Law Options – What are leading websites doing to comply?

Cookie Law Compliance – What Are Your Options?

The EU Cookie Law and The Challenges Businesses Face

Confused about cookies? The EU Cookie law in a nutshell…. (and furt...

Tags: Blogs, Cookie, Law, Marketing, Online, Website

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Comment by Kirsty Lemmon on May 30, 2012 at 12:01: Hi Richard,

Thanks for your comment. Yes the ICO allowed 'implied consent' (contradicting previous guidance) and also suggested in the previous amendment that cookies for analytical purposes 'could' be considered as necessary for user experience (therefore not requiring consent). But again, this was down to their interpretation and could potentially result in clashes with the EU if they do not agree. I agree it's completely chaotic and because there are no clear guidelines, website owners could potentially lose vital analytical data and insight as a direct result of their compliance approach. Without basic web analytics, how can website owners continue to improve the user experience, which is of course at the heart of this law? Perhaps a straightforward campaign to raise awareness of the use of cookies amongst website users may have been a practical and less costly first step.

Editor Comment by Richard Pettet on May 30, 2012 at 11:37: Hi Kirsty,

From a Guardian article I believe that this EU directive has been watered down by the ICO at the 11th hour to allow "implied consent", which essentially makes the law pointless. Also, the ICO apparently wrote to the 50 most visited sites in the UK reminding them of their obligations towards the new rules. Many of those sites were sites based out of the EU, like Facebook, to which this does not apply. The whole thing is a chaotic waste of time, although it does raise awareness on the issues surrounding privacy and cookies, which I guess is a good thing.

Rich