ICO leads the way as cookie law arrives

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.

26 May 2011