Cookie Law

A new EU Directive on website privacy laws comes into affect on 25th May 2012.

The law affects any business in the UK whose website uses ‘non essential’ cookies, such as visitor tracking code or advertising such as Google Analytics.

Fines for non-compliance are applicable. This cookie law is an amended privacy legislation that requires websites to obtain informed consent from visitors before they can store or retrieve any information on a computer or any other web connected device. Cookies are small files that are stored in your browser and enable a site to 'remember' information between pages and visits. They are mostly used to make your web experience easier, like automatically logging you in on return visits, or remembering settings like text size.

However they can also be used to collect data about sites you have visited and display content and advertising based on this data. The use of 'tracking' cookies in particular is what the EU wants to raise awareness of with the new law. By requiring websites to inform and obtain explicit consent for cookies it aims to give web users more control over their online privacy.

In order to comply with the regulation, Apollo recommend that website owners should update their privacy policy to include a more comprehensive guide to cookies and their use, and implement a function for visitors to accept cookies.