Hands still in the cookie jar
The EU Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive came into force earlier this year but businesses were given 1 year to get their act together before any enforcement would be considered. Many readers will be aware that so-called cookies provide a wealth of data for website owners who know what they are doing and allow very targeted marketing to that person.
You may have noticed that when you visit websites, you may mysteriously see adverts for products or similar products you looked at days or weeks ago. This is due to cookies. However, on the other side of this coin is the fact that many think this is a gross invasion of privacy, especially as many people are unaware that data is being collected.
The basis of the new law is that cookies can only be collected if the visitor is specifically made aware that this will happen and given the option of agreeing to this or leaving the site. This in many cases means pop-ups on a website, something which many find frustrating and which reduces the speed and usability which has made the internet such an indispensable daily tool.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has released some new guidance for business this week since it appears that many businesses are still either completely unaware of the new rules, ignoring the rules or struggling to comply. The ICO has indicated that even when the 1 year grace period is over, there will not be a hard approach to compliance but this could perhaps be taken as a signal by many businesses not to take the law seriously, especially given the resources needed to properly police the law would be immense given the millions of websites just in the UK.
This is an interesting area and one we will return to in the New Year.
If you are a business taking steps to comply or struggling to comply with the legislation, we would love to hear from you with details of your approach. If you have any views on whether this legislation is likely to be properly enforced or not, again, please contribute to the blog.
