Cookie Law

[mellowip1983]

Has anyone got any thoughts on how to handle the new cookie law with google analytics?

 

reading the article on BBC news BBC News - 'Action needed' to meet UK's cookie tracking deadline i prefare the idea of BT over that of the ICO

 

just wondered if anyone was doing anything different?

[InterwebsGuy]

Surely Google will actually need to comply with the UK/EU law, as it's actually their code generating them?

 

Somehow I don't think Google will like many millions of users suddenly stopping using Analytics.

[mellowip1983]

but its not the analytics that have to implement then request to store cookies, its the site developer who chooses to use it therefore will need to ask permission for it.

 

I don't like the ICO version as no one will click the accept cookies button and i will miss tracking what is popular on our site at the moment.

[InterwebsGuy]

BT's opt out solution makes much more sense - with the response ironically being stored in a cookie I assume.

 

Millions of people simply won't bother complying, I can't imagine they are come after every tom dick and harry for it - I am sure they will be more interested in the likes of Amazon.

 

I could cope without GA, as we get some basic stats that are adequate from the PHP code that obviously doesn't need Cookies, it is just that GA's are better and cover a wider range of Metrics.

 

Edit: The more I think about it, the more complex an issue it is to deal with. It's not just GA for example that Cookie you, it's any social plugin you may have too. Using Facebook OpenID etc for Single Sign On, that's going to be tracking you - complying to what is frankly a ridiculous law could break core features of a web application.

Edited April 18, 2012 by InterwebsGuy
as above

[localzuk]

How does this affect things like Moodle installations?

[InterwebsGuy]

Session cookies are allowed - it is specifically tracking cookies - so things such as logins, authentication etc are fine. Of course if you have GA in your Moodle code... Edited April 18, 2012 by InterwebsGuy

[InterwebsGuy]

I think the best way for Google, Facebook, Twitter and any of the other big corps that have their code integrated into a large majority of websites would be to have a section on their websites, for example, in the Google Account section, where you consent or not to allowing their tracking Cookies, be they for GA or AdSense or whatever. This would make more sense as then you have consented in one go for a large selection of websites. Repeat for other big corps, such as Facebook. Naturally this doesn't really fulfil the EU requirement, but it would perhaps be the easiest way to mass opt in and out.

The big problem with the above would be how the user would know what third party tracking code is actually included on say BBC or Amazon's website?

 

Stupid law, people are just not going to comply, just like people don't comply with other things. Last time I checked it was illegal to exceed the speed limit, yet some people still do, it is illegal to torrent some music and movies, yet people still do. I am not saying its right, but I can see this being how it is.

Edited April 18, 2012 by InterwebsGuy
Spelling

[JJonas]

Is there a Firefox plugin I can use to tell what cookies are being set?

 

Also if we are not setting any cookies are we now required to say so?

[InterwebsGuy]

Is there a Firefox plugin I can use to tell what cookies are being set?

 

Also if we are not setting any cookies are we now required to say so?

 

IRC The Web Developer toolbar shows you. I just use Chrome mostly these days and hit F12.

[sdc]

Just a link to a related post I've just made: here

[bizwizz]

Thanks for that post, very helpful