Cookie law and your website – what is it and does it affect me?

In May 2011 The UK Government, upon advice from the EU, made law that websites in the UK followed new guidelines in respect to cookies and their use on websites.

So, what is a cookie?

Simply put, a cookie is a little bit of web code that your computer’s browser delivers to your computer’s temporary memory in order for the website to recognise you and deliver the content of the website. In some cases, cookies are required in order for a website to fully function, such as sites where you have to log in or order stuff in a shopping cart. Other cookies are non-essential and the experience of using the site will not change if the cookies are or aren’t enabled.

Why did they make the law?

Well, again put simply, it’s because some nasty and unscrupulous people who use and abuse the internet discovered that you could deliver spyware, malware and other undesirables to users’ computers without them even knowing – allowing virus, intrusive tracking mechanism and all sorts of other nasty stuff to happen when visiting a website without even knowing.

The EU decided this was wrong and put pressure on each country who is an EU member to pass the law in their own country. The UK did. However, because it was pretty restrictive when the law was written and created difficulty across genuine website owners to continue with the service they delivered to millions of people each day, some amendments were made in the summer of 2012 to make it easier and practical for site owners but still allow internet users to have data protection.

In a nutshell, any website you visit should display the fact that it is using cookies. Most cookies are harmless and disappear from your computer when you close your browser. These cookies are called ‘session cookies’ and allow you to get the full use of a website while you are on that site but when you leave it, the cookie deletes itself – or ‘dies’ as we usually refer to it.

There are other cookies, like website visiting behavioral cookies, such as Google Analytics, that allow website owners to find out what search terms you entered into Google to find the website you are on and what pages you visit when you’re on it. In our view, and those of the law, these kind of cookies are ok as they allow the website owner to better understand what’s important to their site users and gives them the information to better tailor the site for them.

Other cookies also provide connections to other sites. In the social media world in which we live, cookies that allow you to share and post to your favourite sites, like Facebook and Twitter use cookies. This allows you to quickly and with less hassle, share, post comment and generally interact with a website on the social site.

Again, in all of this slightly heavy-handed law that has been introduced, it allows you to still use the functions that you are used to while providing the site owner to be compliant.

Obviously it doesn’t stop at the innocent stuff like being able to post a photo from a website of a dog skateboarding (or whatever takes your fancy) onto Facebook without having to always log in, there’s all sorts of ‘black hat’ uses out there, too. Too many, really to go into here.

So, what do I need?

If you are a website owner, you need to have a few things on your site:

• cookie policy, detailing the cookies that are in use on your website and what they’re for
• privacy policy, detailing how you manage and store your website visitors’ data
• cookie display notice on the website that is clear

When you arrived at our website, you will have seen a neat little popup window explaining that there are a couple of cookies in use on our site – all harmless I might add, and that you can click ok or you can turn them off. Our site has been programmed to work 100% without cookies so you won’t see any negative experience, however, for sites that have login areas and shopping carts, you’ll need cookies turned on. This is when you need to become a bit more savvy on what site’s you do and don’t accept the terms, but it won’t take you long.

What can I do about it?

Well, at Aubergine, we are very conscious of giving all the help we can to website owners so that they can operate their sites.

We have partnered with our solicitors to offer Cookie Compliance packages that give you the data protection statements in terms of a cookie policy and privacy policy and our coded solution, just like on our site.

It’s not obtrusive, looks nice and keeps you compliant. As all businesses and websites are different, we have a few packages available to get your website compliant. Prices start from £195 + VAT.

Call us today on 01442 262840 or email us to find out more.

MORE INFORMATION

The UK Government department, the ICO, have produced a great swathe of information available on the subject if you’d like to read more.