Changes in the Laws on Cookies

by Hermione Avila - Paralegal

20 June 2012, filed under Ecommerce

 If you work in ecommerce you probably already know what cookies are. But, for those who are not in the know “cookies” is the term used to refer to the information that a website stores about you as a visitor for the website. There are lots of reasons why a website may track you using cookies; to allow you to auto-fill username and password boxes on the site on repeat visits or to track what you are clicking on for market research.

Historically companies have been allowed to monitor your use of their site without obtaining any kind of consent. In May this has changed slightly. Whilst the proposal was for the laws on cookies to require visitors to a website to click a tick box to agree that cookies were allowed to track their use of the site at the last minute the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have now backtracked by stating that implied consent was satisfactory.

This is not as clear to those who run ecommerce businesses as it could be. Some ecommerce websites rely on the ability to use cookies so that the affiliate schemes they are signed up to can track a customer has come from the ecommerce site to the retailer site in order to pay commission! Therefore, it is very important that this rule is adhered to correctly.

How a Website Can Get Implied Consent

It is not enough to pop an extra paragraph about cookies in your existing privacy policy. The ICO have stated that the notification about cookies must be prominently displayed on the website and if we are all honest about it, even if we made our privacy policies the most thrilling read, it would be unlikely that many visitors would arrive and read the privacy policy!! Therefore, it is advisable to have a small sign or pop up on your homepage which is prominent enough that visitors to your site will not miss it which explains that the site stores cookies on their computer and to have the extra information about cookies included in the privacy policy as well. For more information on cookies have a look at this site.

For more information on running a website please have a look through our ecommerce section of the site.