Companies Urged to Start Cookie Review

The European Privacy Laws deadline is slowly creeping up and companies will need to start reviewing the cookies they use if they don’t want to get reprimanded following complaints.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has released a document providing more information for companies about what they need to do. In it, they identify three key things that need to be done:

•    Check what cookies and similar technologies are used and how they are used

•    Assess how intrusive cookies are

•    Decide on a best solution for obtaining consent

In it, they have also stressed that, following a complaint, companies showing a proactive approach to their use of cookies will be dealt with differently to those that aren’t, reaffirming that, “the key point is that you cannot ignore these rules”.

Nowhere to Hide

The ICO are still drawing up the technical solutions and so any action isn’t likely to be taken until these have been finalised and published – almost certainly after the 26 May deadline. However, this shouldn’t lull companies into a false sense of security. Paul Roberts, Online Campaign Director at homejames, said:

“The new ICO document essentially says if a company were to be investigated, one company that has done nothing versus a company that can show progress will be treated quite differently.”

The ICO have also warned companies not to hide behind the “strictly necessary” ruling. This will allow the use of cookies for things like transactions on websites, so that users don’t have to keep adding what they want to buy to their basket at each stage.