8 replies to this topic

[DJKay]

Hi There,

Someone just sent me this...New net rules set to make cookies crumble. Wow...I just say Wow...can you think of what this will do?

I guess I am going to have to have some sort of a permission form that comes up for every european site we have...its going impact user experience [they will get frustrated and leave because it will take extra time to fill out a permission form]

Anyone been thinking about this? Not sure what solutions we can have..even if you come up with one...there is nothing, no body of experience or evidence that what you do is 'obeying' the law. I don't thing we are going to do anything until they clarify it more.

Edited by DJKay, 10 March 2011 - 02:50 PM.

[Mikl]

Yes, I've been wondering about the effect of this - and especially whether it would hinder our ability to check which sites our visitors come from and which search terms they use.

But the fact that nobody in the SEO community had commented on it (until your post today, DJKay) led me to assume that it wouldn't be a problem.

[DJKay]

Someone just led me to a better article on it....Why the Cookie Monster Won’t Kill European Startups

Essentially, its only suppose to affect the use of ad serving cookies, the ones that track you after you leave the site. If you are just using login and cart cookies etc, then there shouldn't be any issues to deal with. So if that is the case, we are fine..DJKay

[Michael Martinez]

And when everyone has switched over to IPv6 they can kiss their privacy "protection" good-bye....

Supposedly, the need for dynamic or shared IP addresses will diminish with IPv6, so what is to prevent advertisers from tracking the IPv6 data instead of cookies in order to maintain persistence?

[Mikl]

OK, so that deals with the question of the EU directive.

But what about other "do no track" initiatives? In particular, all the major browser makers have said they plan to add some mechanism or other to their products to prevent tracking, either by default or as a user option. Will that only affect ad-serving cookies, or will it also be prevent us gathering information about referring sites, etc?

[DJKay]

Mikl,

That is a good question, we will just have to wait and see I guess. DJKay

[1dmf]

well this regulation deadline is drawing ever closer and was hoping someone might have suggestions as the best way forward to implement these regulations.

It's not about tracking cookies by the way, it's about ANY cookie dependent on what it is used for!

If you use cookies for what ever reason if it isn't in the exception list, you must give the visitor the option to decline them.

So how do you go about implementing this in a sensible, user friendly manner?

How do you get your site to work that depends on cookies for shopping carts, user sessions, to stop constant annoying popup add or other authentication methods without cookies?

Even if your site doesn't use cookies but you run Google analytics which does, you need to be able to stop Google in its tracks if the user declines the cookie.

Here is a link for reference and it also has a link to the guidance PDF http://www.alberon.c...new-cookies-law

All suggestions much appreciated.

below is the guideline for exemption.... (It's not clear where session cookies lie - any ideas?)

Edit-> as a side thought regarding exemption

There is an exception to the requirement to provide information about cookies and obtain consent where the use of the cookie is:


( a ) for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network; or
( b ) where such storage or access is strictly necessary for the provision of an information society service requested by the subscriber or user.

Is a session cookie to authenticate a logged in user or validate a download equivalent to (a) ?

Plus where does this leave members accessing extranet services from 3rd parties, to use these systems can it be implied by the provider that consent has been given by the fact they want to log into your system?

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The unbelivable irony of this is astonashing... here is what it says on the ICO website, regarding their cookies....

The ICO would like to use cookies to store information on your computer, to improve our website. One of the cookies we use is essential for parts of the site to operate and has already been set. You may delete and block all cookies from this site, but parts of the site will not work. To find out more about the cookies we use and how to delete them, see our privacy notice.

I accept cookies from this site.

This is a civil servant organisation paid for via taxation, yet they seem to think they can discriminate against those who do not wish to accept their own website cookies!

All services they offer the public should be availabe to all members of the public regardless as to whether they wish to accept their cookies or not, failure to do so is unacceptable and illegal discrimination in my book, what's your take on this?

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Edited by 1dmf, 12 January 2012 - 07:23 AM.

[Michael Martinez]

Shouldn't Google be addressing the cookie issue with Analytics?

[1dmf]

That's another big question, this is an EU directive so does it affect USA?

Though it does affects EU websites using GOAN / Facebook / Twitter etc..