[Plugin: Cookie Law Info] does nothing ?!?!

Candy, I think you will find that the majority of small to medium sized websites are just going to notify their users of cookies rather than give them the option to disable cookies.

There has been so much negative press about cookies (retargeted advertising and affiliate marketing) that users will just switch them off without understanding the importance of them to 99% of webmasters. If users are given the option, every website in the EU will be unable to interpret their traffic and improve their website!

It is an abomination to Internet commerce and simple web hobbyists but unfortunately it’s also important that we all comply ??

Hi Candy2012, hi pates,

In the next version of the plugin I’ve updated the documentation to explain the rationale behind this plugin. It has been designed to be ‘opinionated’ – in the sense that it is not trying to be all things for all men. This plugin provides the website admin with a simply and clean way show visitors what the privacy and cookie policy is. It quite deliberately does not block cookies.

The view within the online marketing / ecommerce community is that a disruptive banner will lead to visitor dropout, i.e. currently most internet users don’t know what a cookie is or why it might be used. They will click “no” and you either lose visitors or valuable analytics. The ICO themselves ran a similar approach and received just 10% opt-in and their traffic stats (controlled by a cookie) were down 90%. From a website owner’s point of view that is a huge issue and so alternative implementations have been sought.

The industry response so far has been to assess your website for cookie use then to take a view on “implied consent” (where just by using your site the visitor is implied to have accepted your privacy policy). The current best practice, as advised by the likes of Econsultancy and provided as an option in the Government’s own materials, is to use a form of implied consent that clearly makes your policy visible to visitors through a link in the header.

This plugin takes that opinion.

See:
https://econsultancy.com/us/blog/9453-econsultancy-s-solution-to-eu-e-privacy-directive-compliance
https://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2012/03/19/its-not-about-cookies-its-about-privacy/
https://www.johnlewis.com – see how they are doing it (very interesting)

Assuming you are not deliberately breaching visitor privacy (in which case the ICO are rightly coming after you…) then this approach will keep you off the radar of the ICO, whilst still providing the required privacy to your visitor and not causing your site to lose traffic.

The ICO will surely improve their communication about how the law will be implemented, and we will continue to monitor the situation and update this plugin accordingly. In the admin panel of this plugin there’s an option to sign up for such news. It’s non-spam, only news how this WordPress plugin can be used to help you.

I hope that helps clarify a few things.

Thanks again for evaluating this plugin.

An additional point- you do not need to get consent for cookies that are “strictly necessary” for the proper operation of your website. The core WordPress install is such a case. Google Analytics cookies however, are not considered “strictly necessary” but are in a low-intrusion category.

See:
https://www.international-chamber.co.uk/components/com_wordpress/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/icc_uk_cookie_guide.pdf

Overall, I see (understandably!) a great deal of confusion amongst website owners when it comes to understanding the implications of this law. People are rushing to block cookies, or put up intrusive banners to capture consent prior to visitors using their site. There are alternative approaches which are also acceptable.

Hi there,

This morning, as reported on the BBC, the ICO have released an update with specific guidance explaining that “implied consent” is an acceptable way of gaining consent to place cookies.

It’s worth reading the ICO rationale behind this, they do mention that website owners must take a view on how ‘savvy’ their audience is as to whether implied consent is consent at all, and also it will depend heavily on what your cookies store (they mention health details as being something for which implied consent would not be acceptable).

This again adds weight to using a plugin like Cookie Law Info – a simple approach, but one that gives site owners flexibility in how they comply with the EU ePrivacy Directive.

Sources:
1. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18206810
2. https://www.ico.gov.uk/news/blog/2012/updated-ico-advice-guidance-e-privacy-directive-eu-cookie-law.aspx