EU Cookie Law

**Cloud** · 11 May 2012, 01:37 PM

As some of you may know on May 26th of this year a new law is coming into force which requires a website to obtain a visitors consent to the use of cookies prior to using the cookies to store personal information. Now as far as I know a normal basic site done in webdesigner would not use cookies, but say a jotform form, or an ecwid shopping widget or paypal button etc would use cookies. My question is how would we go about implementing this in xara webdesigner so that some sort of once only pop up comes up and asks for consent. There is one widget I have seen which seems a little long winded and I for one do not understand how to use it, it uses jquery and some code etc ( http://www.civicuk.com/cookie-law/index ) I know this law does not yet apply to our brethrin outside the EU but some help would be appreciated.

**steve.ledger** · 11 May 2012, 01:43 PM

Would that not be the responsibility of Jotform (et al) ?
And since when is the www under Government control?
sigh....

**Cloud** · 11 May 2012, 01:52 PM

It's apparently the responsibility of the website owner. The directive from the EU was brought in to combat spyware etc but is is going to be a huge hassle for everyone as the fine is a maximum £1/2million

**Soquili** · 11 May 2012, 02:17 PM

I would assume that any form or widget you may use on your site that requires the use of a cookie must include code to request permission from the visitor to allow the cookie.

As I understand it the EU Cookie Law is written to help prevent companys and or web sites from placing cookies specifically to track an individuals internet activity.

**Cloud** · 11 May 2012, 02:36 PM

You would think so but do you know any that do, for instance does facebook include an opt out within the widget or does even google analytics. The law as it will stand has left it open for just the website owner to be the sole personal responsible for this. If you can install a cookie widget then the customer could get scared and just leave your website, the bbc has said that UK business could lose upwards of £10billion in the following year because of this.

**Cloud** · 11 May 2012, 02:39 PM

I've just run an audit of my site for cookies and the only cookies showing up are for google analytics, I checked a clients with a facebook widget and it also showed a cookie from facebook but not from ecwid which is also present on the site, so it seems certain embedded widgets do not use cookies, I also checked jotform and the does not seem to either. I will try running another audit using another service and see if that picks anything up.

**Soquili** · 11 May 2012, 03:32 PM

I don't create websites so no I don't know of any that do.

Did you need to write code to place a cookie for any widget you are using now? I would assume that you did not, the widget included code for a cookie if it is needed. Any company supplying widgets that require a cookie would not last long if their user's are being subjected to a fine for their use.

Of what use is an audit of your site for cookies? Those would be cookies your site has picked up from another site. Cookies you would be subject to the EU Cookie Law are non-existant until a visitor uses a service or form that would generate a cookie and place it on the visitor's machine.

**handrawn** · 11 May 2012, 06:15 PM

Originally Posted by sledger

And since when is the www under Government control?
sigh....

wake up

**Soquili** · 11 May 2012, 06:30 PM

Steve I know this is a serious matter. My point is the widget being used is the best place to put any code to request permission to allow a cookie. The widget contains the code to push a cookie onto a visitor's computer and should trigger the request. Simply placing a popup will not prevent an existing widget from pushing out a cookie.

A new widget is required and the creator of the widget must be required to include the code to make a request and then abide by the viewer's response.

This is not something you can put into a placeholder or popup layer as a standalone addition to anything that creates a cookie.

If you place any cookie creating widget/code on a page without any other content you can have the link to the page trigger a popup or intermediary page requesting permission to place a cookie. Then your popup or intermediary page must either proceed to the where the cookie will be created or return to the previous page.

**handrawn** · 11 May 2012, 06:47 PM

Sure Bill - I don't build websites, but I know about the law for other reasons, I just wanted to emphasise that this is something a lot of visitors reading this might be unaware of

In fact the [UK] law has been in place since May 2011; the May 2012 deadline is simply the ending of a 1 year period of grace before enforcement begins; I feel a lot of people may well get caught out

When it come to the technical nitty gritty I leave that up to you and sledger and the other technical experts