All the latest UK technology news, reviews and analysis
|
|
|
25 May 2011
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) will not take action against companies failing to comply with new privacy and communication regulations relating to the use of cookies for one year.
However, Information Commissioner Christopher Graham told the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers that, while this allows businesses a long time to modify their sites, the ICO will enforce the rules strongly once the year is up.
"The government has said that it does not expect the ICO to enforce this new rule straight away, so we're giving businesses and organisations up to one year to get their house in order," he said.
"This does not let everyone off the hook. Those who choose to do nothing will have their lack of action taken into account when we begin formal enforcement of the rules."
Graham also revealed details of the ICO's plans to inform visitors to its own web site how it is using cookies, but said that, while firms may use its example as a guide, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
"As the regulator, I am conscious that my own web site will be looked at as a model of how to comply. We've decided to place a header bar on our web site giving information about the cookies we use and choices about how to manage them," he said.
"I am not saying other web sites should necessarily do the same. Every web site is different, and prescriptive 'to do' lists would only hinder, rather than help, businesses to find a solution that works best for them."
Latest stories from Privacy
Related videos
Related articles
Related jobs
Poll
Are you confident that the UK's IT infrastructure is secure from attack in the wake of the Flame malware revelations?
V3 examines the key strengths and weaknesses of Samsung's latest iPhone killer
Connect with V3.co.uk
Social networking is almost ubiquitous. This white paper examines the benefits and risks and it looks at the different ways companies can reconcile them
The importance of understanding your infrastructure
The Role: As a Field Service Engineer working from...
The Role: Make the most of your IT knowledge in one...
Head of IT / Infrastructure Manager (Marketing Services...
A Multi-national data analytic's and cloud computing...
Keep up to date with the latest products, services and technologies from the world's leading IT companies. IThound.com brings you over 2,000 white papers, case studies and analyst reports.
Do you agree?
ICO scores an own goal
In order to be compliant with their own guidelines the ICO spent £3,942.50 installing an opt-in banner on their own website for visitors to give consent to their website analytics system using cookies.” A FOI request to the ICO established just how much an impact to the accuracy of cookie based website analytics system is caused by adding visitor consent. In the two weeks before the addition of the opt in their website analytics system was registering an average of just over 8,000 absolute unique visitors per day. In the fortnight after adding the opt in their systems reported an average of under 750 absolute unique visitors per day. In other words a drop of over 90%. Spending money trying to make a free website analytics system compliant may turn out to be an expensive mistake. A lot of website owners use these systems but unfortunately they may end up costing them anything but free. We recommend website managers move to IP address and User Agent based analytics systems, such as evisit analyst. They don’t use cookies they do not need opt ins from users. The process of adding these systems to a website is the same as cookie based systems. Although they operate in slightly different ways to cookie based systems, IP address and User Agent systems are accepted by Audit Bureau of Circulation for website audit. Our advice is quite clear: Ignore the ICO; don’t add an opt in banner, which will probably frighten visitors off; don’t use a cookie based website analytics system; instead use an IP Address and User Agent based one such as evisit analyst instead.
Posted by: John Harrison 04 Jul 2011
Information Commissioner need to clarify guidance
We welcome the Government’s decision to give UK businesses a year to comply with the EU directive to request consent from web users to store cookies. However, we would like to see the Government and the Information Commissioner clarifying their guidance through open consultation with retailers and eCommerce providers. While it is not the role of Government to stipulate technical approaches, they must be clearer about what is required so that technologists can develop them. It's equally important to educate consumers about what cookies do. Cookies are vitally important for retailers. They allow them to offer visitors to their online stores a personalised shopping experience, by tracking their browsing and buying behaviour. This ensures that products, services and promotions offered or recommended to consumers are tailored to their needs. Retailers do need to make sure they are taking the EU directive seriously and ensure their sites are fully compliant by the new UK deadline; a year will pass-by quickly. However, they should see it as an opportunity to inform and educate their customers about what the cookies on their site are doing. By being open and transparent they will build confidence and trust; two of the characteristics that loyal and prolific shoppers share. If they don’t, they could face hefty fines and the possibility of losing the trust and loyalty of their online customers.
Posted by: Eric Abensur 26 May 2011
Wolf Software - were they first
Wolf Software have resolved the issue of cookies with regards to Google Analytics. http://www.wolf-software.com/Downloads/jpecrga/ This plug-in have been verified as compliant by the ICO (David Evans specifically) and was released before the ICO updated their site and implemented a version which looks similar albeit functionally less advanced.
Posted by: Tim Gurney 25 May 2011