Socitm offers cookie auditing service for public sector web sites

Socitm Insight, the research arm of Socitm, has teamed up with auditing firm Cookie Reports to offer public sector web site managers tools to ensure compliance with changes to cookie laws ahead of enforcement action in 2012.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has given businesses in the private and public sector a year to become compliant with new rules whereby explicit user consent must be obtained in order to track them via cookies.

Socitm's advice is designed to get organisations up to speed with the changes by providing tips and tools to help staff and web site users stay informed.

This includes an audit of the cookies on the site and on which pages they appear, a guide on the best ways to inform visitors about cookie tracking, and a monitoring service to give citizens the ability to see which cookies they have agreed to.

Martin Greenwood, programme manager for Socitm Insight, claimed that the offering will prove highly valuable at a time when public sector organisations are being encouraged to get online to boost services to citizens.

"Without such guidance and support, the directive could compromise the speed of digital development and the associated social and economic benefits," he said.

"At a time when all public services are being encouraged to go 'digital by default' we are delighted that our partnership with Cookie Reports has allowed us to offer the sector a highly cost-effective response."

The service will be offered for a fee, but no specific information was given on what this would be. V3.co.uk contacted Socitm for more details, but had received no reply at the time of publication.

Organisations have a year before any enforcement action is taken by the ICO, but the data watchdog set an example by installing a cookie approval bar on its web site when the law came into force.

However, concerns about the new law have been seen first-hand by the ICO after it reported a 90 per cent drop in measured traffic to its site, which firms that rely on visitor statistics to sell advertising will fear could affect their business models.