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The current cookie crisis

Author:: Paul Boag
Published:: 08 March 2011
Categories:: News
Reading time:: 2 minutes

The BBC published a post today about upcoming EU legislation over the use of cookies. This has sent many website owners into a panic. However, is that panic justified?

Warning! The post you are viewing is out of date and almost certainly no longer accurate. For more topical posts, check out the “related reading” at the bottom of this page or drop me an email with any questions.

Cookies are one of the building blocks of most websites. These small text files on users computers allow websites to store all kinds of information. Cookies allow websites to remember users login details, shopping cart content and the current ‘state’ of a webpage. They are also used to produce targeted advertising based on users behaviour and power stats packages such as Google Analytics.

It is this latter group and associated privacy issues that have encouraged the European Union to introduce its current legislation. The EU is worried that cookies can be used for intrusive behavioural advertising.

No need to panic

The legislation was passed some time ago but the current panic is because of an impending May 25th deadline. However as the BBC article points out…

We do not expect the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to take enforcement action in the short term against businesses and organisations as they work out how to address their use of cookies.

This is because at the moment the legislation is still vaguely defined. Guidelines about how to conform are still being drawn up.

We are still a long way from the nightmare scenario painted by some of terms and conditions being presented before being able to access a website.

Explicit consent

The part of the legislation that is causing the most panic refers to users providing “explicit consent”. Unfortunately what explicit consent means is open to interpretation.

For example, advertisers are arguing that web browsers allow users to disable cookies so if they choose not to disable them they are providing consent. Unsurprisingly privacy advocates dispute this.

What should you do?

So with the legislation still open to interpretation and the May 25th deadline looming, what should you do if you run a website? Personally, I recommend following the advice found at outlaw.com. They write…

We recommend that if your website uses cookies, you should:
include a link to your privacy policy on all pages;
explain in that policy how and why you use cookies; and
include a link in your policy to www.aboutcookies.org so that your visitors can access instructions on deleting and controlling cookies.

No doubt the BBC news story will lead to a rash of email spam claiming our sites break EU regulations (and wanting us to pay for it to be fixed) in much the same way we saw over accessibility. Don’t be taken in. You will need to make changes to your site but it is extremely unlikely this will be the doom days scenario some claim.

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I’m a UX consultant and conversion optimization specialist with 32 years in digital. I help teams create user experiences that work; winning support, improving results, and making change stick.

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