EU: cookie law opt in script

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On Thursday the EU law(which the uk has passed verbatum) regarding cookies comes into effect.

From my reading of it, any site that has among other things google analyitics present on it, will need to inform the user that cookies are present on the site, refer them to the sites privacy policy and make them explicitly opt in so that 3rd party cookies(as in if you have a shopping cart that is fair enough but advertising etc isn't) are allowed to farm data.

Its ridiculous quite frankly.

Anyone got a decent solution as to how to do this.

I'm thinking a php script that disables all cookies on the page unless they opt in,(and once they have opted in is never seen again) if that is doable, if not then just chucks them to say google.com until such time as they opt in.

Anyone got or seen anything that does this? or give me a starting point as to what to google for. I really don't know where to start,

Have i mentioned its ridiculous yet?

dave
#programming #cookie #cookie law #law #opt #opt in script #script
  • I could be wrong but I'm sure its the other way around. You have to give them the option to opt out and give clear details in the privacy policy that you are tracking using cookies to track them.
    • [1] reply
    • Opting out would make more sense. How about click here to opt-out with a link that just takes you away from the site? Lol. It really is a stupid law and as most modern browsers have the ability to block third-party cookies anyway then I think it's a pretty pointless excersise.
      • [1] reply
  • It's all about informed consent and making sure no one is placing cookies on a browser without permisssion.

    Cookie Stuffing programmes are now illegal and we all remember the Hogan case.

    The ASA in the UK is really hot now on sites which are not legal truthful and honest.You can send them your site for a health check why take a chance?

    I'm sure the USA has a similar service.The law is extremely complex and I would advise everyone to take out insurance cover.

    On this basis if we're realy honest with ourselves the scammers brought this upon themselves.Too many offers on websites are just untrue.Most need to be qualified since the illegal sites have tranished us all in that the public just feel here comes another snakeoil mlm charlatan.

    Just look at the blatant OTT claims on most of the homepages of clickbank products.Each new product tries to out do the other promising a magic bullet to earn income whilst you sleep or teaching omline methods which are somewhat dubious.Not all but there are far too many black hat idiots.
    I'm surprised the USA is not more stringent like the ASA (who only have a code) in prosecuting websites which are full of untruths.It's only a matter of time.
    If you wouldn't sell it to your Mother don't sell it .

    A useful legal update site is ICO publishes advice on how websites can comply with new 'cookie law' | Pinsent Masons LLP
    • [1] reply
    • Apparently we have been given an extra year to comply with the new regulations. Source: BBC News - Cookie law deferred for one year

      The ico.gov.uk web site is now complying with the rules and has a message at the top of the page on first visit that asks if you want to accept cookies. Once you accept their cookie, their google analytics code is injected into the source.

      This site has an example of how this can be done with jQuery: jQuery - EPD / PECR compliant jQuery plugin for Google Analytics

      So the opt-in script is required for Googla analytics. But what about adsense?
  • This would effectively reduce the ability of google analytics to deliver any kind of accurate data, if say only 3 out of 10 users allow cookies, then how could you expect to get any kind of accurate indication of traffic on your site,

    It seems like we may be facing a serious threat to our ability to generate revenue using cookies...
    • [1] reply
    • I agree it would make script based analysis tools like Google analytics worthless. I think a tool like SmarterStats would be required which gathers the data from access logs from the server.
      • [1] reply
  • yeah we get a year to sort everything out. The system are we are looking into is having a light box type jquery script run when a user first enters the page that refers them to our privacy policy and gives them the option to leave the page or accept our terms.

    Looks like the uk goverment is working with microsoft/mozilla/google to try and sort a browser based solution though so we are hoping that other then updating our privacy policy we can just ignore it for now.

    It is still a ridiculous piece of legislation.

    dave
  • So basically if we're gonna put any type of cookie in our visitor's computer (which is probably done by 99% of all websites in the world btw)... we have to ask our users permission first?

    If that's the case then every website will be like a porn site we're users are asked if they're 18 or not.

    Does this apply on websites hosted on EU only?
    • [1] reply
    • Yes, its only for web sites hosted in Europe. I wonder what affect this will have on the web hosting companies. I bet lots of people start moving there hosting outside of Europe.
      • [1] reply
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • I have written a blog post on this particular subject at http://www.onlinetrafficsuccess.com/2011/the-eu-cookie-problem-and-is-this-the-end-of-affiliate-marketing-3 which outlines what i think should happen but in my opinion I don't think we should worry as long as the affiliate networks listen to the affiliates and the product creators







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    EU: cookie law opt in script

    On Thursday the EU law(which the uk has passed verbatum) regarding cookies comes into effect. From my reading of it, any site that has among other things google analyitics present on it, will need to inform the user that cookies are present on the site, refer them to the sites privacy policy and make them explicitly opt in so that 3rd party cookies(as in if you have a shopping cart that is fair enough but advertising etc isn't) are allowed to farm data.