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Websites must soon ask visitors to consent to cookies under new rules, producing the potential for a rash of pop-ups. Delia Smith is having trouble with her cookies – and we don't mean her delicious-sounding chocolate almond ones. If you log on to the TV chef's Delia Online websiteto check out her "recipe of the day", or pick up some cooking tips, you will be confronted with a big pop-up window stating: "Important notice to Delia Online users … the law now states that cookies on websites can only be used with your specific consent. Delia Online is currently formulating the best way to obtain your consent without compromising your enjoyment of the site." You have to actively click on the pop-up to get rid of it so that you can access the site's content.
Meanwhile, anyone visiting the website of South Ayrshire council in Scotland can't fail to notice the large blue information bar at the top of the homepage. Headed "Important: Cookie Policy", this includes a button allowing people to accept the use of cookies. As you will have gathered by now, this issue involves internet cookies rather than the edible kind, and new European Union rules dictating the way they can be used. Cookies are small data files put on to our computers by websites so they can remember things about us, and almost every site uses them (see opposite). On 26 May last year, the law on the use of cookies changed. Companies usually bury information about cookies in a link labelled "privacy policy" in small type at the bottom of their homepage. But from that date, all UK businesses and organisations running websites in this country were required to obtain people's consent before they install cookies on their machines. These rules are designed to protect our privacy, and were partly prompted by concern about the online tracking of individuals and the use of "spyware" to collect information.
However, in an 11th-hour intervention, the UK authorities gave everyone 12 months to implement the new rules. Some website bosses may have been hoping the whole thing would go away, but, unfortunately for them, this "grace period" ends on 26 May. From that date, all firms and organisations using cookies must comply with the law. Any website flouting the rules could face enforcement action from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which has the power to impose fines of up to £500,000....Read more here--: Internet cookie crunch on the way for online shoppers
Meanwhile, anyone visiting the website of South Ayrshire council in Scotland can't fail to notice the large blue information bar at the top of the homepage. Headed "Important: Cookie Policy", this includes a button allowing people to accept the use of cookies. As you will have gathered by now, this issue involves internet cookies rather than the edible kind, and new European Union rules dictating the way they can be used. Cookies are small data files put on to our computers by websites so they can remember things about us, and almost every site uses them (see opposite). On 26 May last year, the law on the use of cookies changed. Companies usually bury information about cookies in a link labelled "privacy policy" in small type at the bottom of their homepage. But from that date, all UK businesses and organisations running websites in this country were required to obtain people's consent before they install cookies on their machines. These rules are designed to protect our privacy, and were partly prompted by concern about the online tracking of individuals and the use of "spyware" to collect information.
However, in an 11th-hour intervention, the UK authorities gave everyone 12 months to implement the new rules. Some website bosses may have been hoping the whole thing would go away, but, unfortunately for them, this "grace period" ends on 26 May. From that date, all firms and organisations using cookies must comply with the law. Any website flouting the rules could face enforcement action from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which has the power to impose fines of up to £500,000....Read more here--: Internet cookie crunch on the way for online shoppers