The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has never had an easy existence, many criticising it as a toothless watchdog before it had the power to fine organisations, and then complaining that it has failed to use this power correctly since it was introduced.

The ICO's reputation took another hit on Wednesday when a former deputy commissioner, Alexander Owens, gave evidence at the Leveson Inquiry about his work in investigating newspapers in 2003.

Owens explained that soon after starting the Operation Motorman case he was quickly told by none other than his boss, Richard Thomas, to ignore any links between the emerging hacking allegations and the press.

"Within weeks of commencing our work [we] were informed that we were not to make contact with any of the newspapers identified and we were not to speak to, let alone interview, any journalists," he said in his witness statement.

"Despite our protests we were told this was the decision of Richard Thomas and that
he would deal with the press involvement by way of the Press Complaints Council."

Equally as damning are Owens' comments relating to current deputy information commissioner David Smith, who appeared on Panorama in April to discuss the phone hacking scandal and the ICO's earlier work on the allegations.

"In this programme he made a statement that no journalist was ever prosecuted 'because we didn't have the evidence that those journalists knew beyond all reasonable doubt that the information had been obtained illegally'," said Owens.

"This I knew was not only inaccurate but deliberately misleading. What David Smith had omitted to tell the public was there was overwhelming evidence to establish numerous cases against journalists."

However, while it's easy to find fault with the ICO, the organisation was clearly one of countless groups, businesses and individuals that dared not incur the wrath of the Murdoch media empire, even if they were operating on behalf of the government.

There's been endless debate and speculation about how online businesses will have to change their web sites to inform visitors about the use of cookies, as changes to the Privacy and Communications Directive became law on 26 May.

But, at the last minute, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which is tasked with enforcing the changes, announced that firms have a year to sort their sites out before it will take any action.

Nevertheless, as the arbiter on cookie laws, the ICO has to set a good example and has placed a small header on its site informing visitors of its use of cookies (see image below).

"On 26 May 2011 the rules about cookies on web sites changed. This site uses cookies. One of the cookies we use is essential for parts of the site to operate and has already been set," the notice reads. "You may delete and block all cookies from this site, but parts of the site will not work."

Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said on Wednesday that the organisation would take this approach, but that it is not an example that companies should blindly follow, explaining that the ICO will use examples from other sites to shape its guidance.

"Every web site is different, and prescriptive and universal 'to do' lists would only hinder rather than help businesses to find a solution that works best for them and their customers," he said.

"The initial advice that we issued earlier this month will continue to be supplemented with real-life examples as they come in."

V3.co.uk has scouted around a number of major web sites, such as Amazon, Facebook and Twitter, which all use cookies for a variety of reasons, to see whether any other examples exist, but has found nothing so far.

Have you seen any web sites acknowledging the new law and asking for your permission to use cookies and telling you what information they are storing? If so, let us know in the comment section below.

ICO home page asking users' permission to store cookies on their computers.