On the 25th May 2012 it becomes illegal in Europe for any website owner to ‘set a cookie’ without the PRIOR explicit permission of the visitor. When a user first visits a website that uses cookies they will need to agree to accept the cookies (if they wish to use the site). Read further information from the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Cookies are text files which sometimes get stored on your computer when you visit a website. They have a multitude of uses. One of the most frequent usages is so the website remembers who you are, next time you visit. If you need to learn more about cookies, visit this page from BBC Webwise – What are cookies? Commonly, static websites don’t often use cookies very often but database powered websites (including WordPress) frequently do.
I would urge website owners to watch the 2.5 minute video below which sums things up nicely:
This is a very odd piece of legislation and it’s going to be interesting to see how things develop. If the law is implemented fully, we could be see pop-ups on just about every website we visit, which could become extremely annoying. It wasn’t long ago that we declared war on pop-up advertising. Now we’re inviting pop-ups back again!
Personally, I think a browser setting initiative, combined with public education about cookies would be a much smarter solution. Technically, there’s lots of information which website owners should include in footers (e.g. company registration numbers and registered addresses) but many websites don’t. And I see little attempt to enforce this. Draw your own conclusions.
If Josh.biz manages your website for you and you would like to discuss implementing cookie warnings on your website, please get in touch with us.