cookies

The war on cookies is over, or at least the rhetoric has been turned down a notch. Back in June when the ICO, who enforce the Data Protection Act, implemented the strictest interpretation of the law, their website traffic dropped 90%.

We dubbed it Cookiepocalypse. However, it looks like the war on cookies has just ended, or at least the ground offensive is over. On 31 Jan, they updated their website with the softer interpretation of the law which assumes implied consent.

When it comes to the ePrivacy Directive, the first step towards getting compliant will be in admitting that you have a law to deal with and it's not going away.

Evidence of innovation on your part with regard to transparency - doing something meaningful to advance dialogue with your consumers, explaining how and why you are using their data - will put you in a strong, defensible position come the deadline for compliance in May 2012.

If you operate a business that uses cookies - for example, to track and target online behaviour - and you’re located within the EU, now is the time to get educated on the ePrivacy Directive. It’s a law, and compliance with it will start being enforced soon. In the event this is all news to you, let me explain.

The ePrivacy Directive stipulates that businesses must gain consumer consent before collecting or using their data. It applies broadly to cookies used for third party behavioural advertising and virtually any other ad-related purpose including analytics, optimisation and attribution. The scope is wide enough to implicate every site and every ad delivered in the EU.

Update: Cookiepocalypse is over (possibly). The ICO have updated their advice, suggesting implied consent is sufficient for users. Read more

This one is going to run and run. I'm predicting that anyone in digital is going to be an expert in cookies by the end of the Summer. And not the nice baked versions either, sadly.

Imagine a 90% drop in website visitors that are willing to accept a cookie from your website. be tracked through your analytics tool? Or your advertising targeting? Or your third party shopping basket? Ouch.

That's what happened with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) implemented the new law with existing technology, over 90% of site visitors declined to accept a Google Analytics cookie, thereby disappearing from their analytics.

Whilst the powers-that-be have allowed a year for industry to figure out a way to implement the new 'daft by European standards' cookie law, its impact is dramatic, as illustrated by the graphs obtained by leading web analytics expert, Vicky Brock (@brockyvick), under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

UPDATE: Vicky has kindly shared the raw data from the FOI request if anyone fancies a spot of number-crunching.

Last week, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) published guidance on changes to the laws on using cookies that will affect tens of thousands of business owners.

The new law applies to all EU websites and requires website owners to get a user's consent before cookies are saved onto a device. First,  bit of background...

A revision of EU privacy law could have a devastating effect on online advertising.

Under the new rules publishers must gain users' consent before placing cookies on their machines. Online ad practises like behavioural targeting, retargeting and audience segmentation will all be effected.

The change will see national governments having to:

"ensure that the storing of information, or the gaining of access to information already stored, in the terminal equipment of a subscriber or user is only allowed on condition that the subscriber or user concerned has given his/her consent, having been provided with clear and comprehensive information."

The EU are objecting to online advertisers collecting data without the users' knowledge. Common practice is to make users aware of cookie use through privacy policies posted in their small print. With ever-improving behavioural and semantic targeting relying on cookies, the EU's threats to step in if the industry doesn't regulate itself will raise concerns at publishers in an already-difficult advertising market. The gloves, it appears, are most definitely off.