Smart cow marketing ltd is a digital marketing company based in South London.
We believe in building strong trusted relationships between business and so would like to share some of our in depth expertise and knowledge with you. This Blog is about the new law on website cookies that is coming into effect on 26th May 2012
What is this Law?
From 26th May 2012 websites in the UK must comply to new regulations that means if they use cookies they must notify the user who can accept or deny the use of the cookies. So what are cookies? Well, cookies are small text files that are placed onto your computer when you visit a site. The majority of site have them and they are generally harmless. So what is the problem with them? Well they can track information on how you use the websites, which pages you visit, which buttons you press etc… This is generally used for analytics to provide the site owner information on how to best improve their sites and how many people visit. It can also be used to transfer information from one page to another. However in the era of data protection the Information commissioners office (IOC) states that all sites must notify their users if they use cookies.
Does it affect me?
- If you run a web site it most probably does affect you and there can be some hefty penalties that could be imposed (up to £500,000). There are a few exceptions to the law where for the sole purpose of carrying out or facilitating the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network;
or - where such storage or access is strictly necessary to provide an information society service requested by the subscriber or user.
Google Analytics
The main point is that if you use google analytics to see how many people visit your site then yes you use cookies.
The use for analytics has not been deemed essential as per the 2 exceptions mentioned so you will have to take action.
There is still a lot of uncertainty on how this law will be deployed and who’s responsibility it will be. There has been a fair amount of talk over the past year that the browsers themselves (firefox/chrome/ internet explorer) should be responsible, however that has not yet been confirmed and doesn’t look to be the case.
What action do I take?
There are 3 things you can do:
- Do nothing. There are so many sites out the that use cookies will you really be picked on just because you use analytics? Well even though this may be the case we do not recommend this line.
- Do something. Add some script to your site to let people know that you are using cookies. This could be seen as bit of an intrusion and discourage people from using your site.
- Stop doing something. Stop using cookies such as with Google analytics. You will lose a lot of information but will be compliant
What is our recommendation?
Well we suggest that you either take option 2 or 3 so that you are compliant. Contact us if would like to know how.
We hope that this article is of use, feel free to forward it to whoever may find it useful.
Digital marketing agency London
If you need a helping hand building an digital marketing strategy, get in touch with us at Smart Cow Digital Marketing for expert advice on how to conduct an effective digital marketing campaign! Digital marketing tactics we offer include web design and development, SEO services, Pay Per Click (PPC), social media management through to CRM and marketing automation.