Webmasters are now able to avoid prosecution following the launch of Cookie Control, a cookie consent solution, by digital communications agency CIVIC. Cookie Control was developed in response to demand from CIVIC’s many government clients including the Scottish Government, SQA and Skills Development Scotland. Developed at no cost to the taxpayer, the project is a great example of collaboration both within the public sector and the private sector.
To act in accordance with new EU legislation, websites must now gain consent for the use of cookies or similar technologies. From May 2012, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will begin to prosecute webmasters who have failed to comply.
The law means that webmasters must audit their cookies and present clear information about them on their privacy policy and provide a mechanism for obtaining consent, before cookies are collected, and make any technical changes to cookie-storing scripts in order to test for consent before any are stored.
CIVIC’s Cookie Control solution is a smart plug-in, designed to gain user consent where other solutions have failed. It comes with an online configurator where users can set their customised styling options, select the position of the Cookie Control icon, edit the supplied boiler-plate text and include a link to their privacy policy.
The service will also provide examples of how to adapt standard third party scripts to test for user consent before they run, and the team at CIVIC are also available to help with custom implementations and cookie audits.
While many websites will be able to comply with a few tweaks to their code and the application of Cookie Control, some third party apps like Google Analytics and websites reliant on sales and advertising, will be affected. Not surprisingly, many website owner’s reactions have been quite negative.
Big providers of internet services liberally use cookies to make their websites work, track user behaviour and personalise the user’s browsing experience, however this data, once brought into existence, has a way of getting out, being repurposed for commercial gain or otherwise misused.
Mark Steven, CIVIC’s Head of Client Services, says: “Despite the overall unenthusiastic reaction, we think the new cookie law will produce a new kind of good practise for websites and prevent user-identifiable data getting into the hands of big corporates and their governments. Ultimately, for the protection of individual freedoms online, this is a good thing.”
“We think our Cookie Control solution is a simple, universal way for websites to comply with the regulations and we look forward to helping websites stay on the right side of the law.”
CIVIC is an independent creative digital communications agency with significant experience in the public and private sector. Using what it calls “creative technology”, CIVIC blends design with cutting edge digital expertise to bring business strategies to realisation through digital media.
For more information contact: Lauren Cormack
