The EU’s Privacy and Communications Directive on electronic privacy has come to force from May 26, 2011. The UK government’s Information Commissioner’s office (ICO) has issued a guide line on what needs to be done by UK websites in order to comply with the EU directives. The ICO has also announced that the UK businesses will be given a period of one year for implementing these changes. The new amendment states that the websites should give clear information about the cookies that will be set in the user’s device (PC, mobile etc.) and get consent from user or give the option to opt out. The consent can be taken when the user logs into a website, it can be added to the terms and conditions which have to be accepted by the users or can be obtained in a more intrusive way of popups. On the browser front, Microsoft’s IE9.0 and latest versions of Mozilla are offering new settings that would allow the users to decide whether or not to allow the browsers to set or collect browser data. Google has announced that it is working on adding a similar feature for their Chrome browser.
As a software development firm developing web-based applications, portals and e-commerce solutions, we at Packnet would be incorporating these changes into our development policies and would also do an audit and review on the list of cookies currently used by our websites and portals. We will be deciding on the best way of obtaining consent from the users and will make the necessary changes.
View the video below for an overview of the cookie law:
