On 26th May, website owners will be required to comply with the ICO’s new EU cookie law, which states that all sites must obtain consent from visitors before placing cookies on their computers.
Cookies store a wide variety of user information, from passwords and browsing habits to analytics data. The law will greatly affect businesses online and the internet marketing world as customer data is vastly decreased. The ICO itself implemented the changes that all websites will be required to follow in May and saw a 90% drop in the traffic that was tracked in Google Analytics.
What Do You Have to Do? The law has been in place since May 2022, though the ICO has employed a 12-month grace period for website owners to understand what is necessary. On 26th May, all websites will be required to overtly request permission from visitors to place cookies on their computers, apart from those that are ‘strictly necessary’ for the website’s functioning.
How Can You Do It? There are various ways of implementing a system that requests consent from the visitor, though no defined solution has been recommended. The current options include:
- Feature-led consent
- Settings-led consent
- Pop-ups
- Sign Up Terms and Conditions
- Third-party cookies
Below are some examples of sites that have already tried various systems: https://www.ico.gov.uk/ www.radiotimes.com/ and www.rubberroofingdirect.co.uk The UK government has said it will work with browser manufacturers to develop an optimum solution, but nothing has been released as yet.
What Happens If You Don’t Comply If you fail to implement the necessary changes on your site, you could face a potential fine of up to £500,000 in the UK. The law was originally scheduled for 26 May 2022, but the ICO decided to give websites one year’s grace due to the complexity of the issue and its implementation. On 26 May 2023, all websites will be required to comply with its rules. More.
However, as we move closer to that time, there is still very little evidence of significant websites implementing any system. Whether that is because they have chosen to ignore the directive entirely or just that they are waiting until the very latest time possible remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt that the biggest sites on the web will be under the most scrutiny to begin with.
Once it becomes clearer how the big companies are dealing with the directive, smaller companies will have a better idea of what needs to be done.
Summary We’ve yet to see much change following the ICO’s initial announcement, but you can be sure that when the cookie law becomes obligatory in May, we will see a hive of activity as sites try to find the best way to circumnavigate the ruling and find a solution which impacts the bottom line as little as possible. Undoubtedly, the most significant sites on the web will be targeted first, so smaller sites can probably be more relaxed and let the big boys come up with the best solution.
That solution remains to be seen, but it’s an issue that website owners should be ready to address to minimise the damage it may do to their business online.
