You may have heard about the new Cookie Law in certain publications, and how you could face fines for having a website that is not compliant.
Just over a year ago the ICO (Information Commissioners Office) gave all website owners one year grace period to update their website policies and make website users aware of what cookies are stored on the visitors computer whilst they are visiting the website. Not many of you have probably heard about it as it was not overly advertised.
In a quick summary a cookie is a text file that is downloaded to your computer when you browse a website. This information could be anonymous information that is collected to help website owners understand their visitors journey with such tools as Google Analytics. Other cookies could be the content of a shopping basket or social network information whilst you are logged into Facebook etc.
For a full breakdown of what cookies are, the various types of cookies and how you can administer cookies here is some helpful reading:
http://www.allaboutcookies.org/
Originally the ICO requested that the website visitor was made fully aware that the website uses cookies and requires the users consent before continuing to use the site. Not only this but also requested that there should features available on the website to enable / disable the relevant cookies.
There was a major uproar over the last year of the potential damage that placing obtrusive banners on the homepage of every website as well as the associated costs with it!
For example: A user seeing a large pop up asking for permission could possibly be scared and forced into going somewhere else and more than likely visiting a website which does not comply to the cookie law yet.
Another factor was cost. Every website is different and depending on the scale of the build could have a wide range of cookies in their system which, potential involves further development time. In some cases cookies are required to help the site function and without them would deem the website unusable.
This left the ICO with a large list of complaints and it was not until a few days prior to the law being passed they have now decided to allow Implicit permission for website owners to comply. What this means is users do not have to make an explicit choice. Instead, their continued use of a site would be taken to mean they are happy for information to be gathered.
As an extra method of making users aware is to create a short notice on the entrance of the site and if further information on what cookies are being used is requested, then a link to a cookie policy explaining what cookies are being used on the site and reference to how they can disable them.
This has been a god send and has potentially saved many website owners thousands of pounds trying to code features in their site to comply with the new cookie law.
The fee could be as much as £500,000 for not complying. Having said this, currently the ICO are happy to point website owners in the right direction to comply rather than hit them straight up with the fine.
Ok, so i know some of you are probably thinking it keeps website designers busy carrying out these tasks for clients but trust me we would rather you spend your money on expanding or marketing the website to gain more awareness and not to put a tick in a box.
We have been busy working on a possible solution for our clients’ websites and up until the new Implicit ruling, we are happy to announce we have a method for complying to the ICO’s current Cookie Law and for an affordable fee.
To find out what we could do for your website then please get in touch with Martin on 020 3355 8747
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