New cookie law in UK?

[webmonkey]

Originally Posted by Lawman

There is a legal requirement and we in the UK must comply or risk prosecution.

We must indeed.
No argument there.
What is open to question is the nature of the "risk".

Be that as it may, Stacounter, like any other analytics provider, are simply supplying a service. The onus (as I understand the legislation) is not on them but on individual webmasters and site owners to comply. So I'm at a loss to know what's stopping you or anyone else complying?

Indeed, I see that the several companies have not been backward in coming forward to assist site owners to comply...for a price, of course. In one case, one company is offering to do it all for you for the measly sum of just £295 (plus VAT, natch) per annum. I feel a sense of millennium bug monetization deja vu coming on.... What a pity I missed out on that last goldmine...opppss...opportunity!

Frankly, with KPMG reporting just a a few days ago that 95% of UK organisations (many within the FTSE 100) 'do not comply with EU cookie law', I'm not expecting a visit from several large gentlemen with suspicious bulges under their right armpits any time soon... I rather doubt the MIB will go after the sites using statcounter when there are much bigger and fatter fish to net that spend more on analytics per day than you or I earn in a year.

I leave you with the words "teacup" and "storm".

[DavyAndDavy]

I agree that risk assessment is key to the way forward, and it will be interesting to see if the various (UK) government websites, amongst others, suddenly comply on 27th May. But personally I'd rather use UK ICO guidelines when assessing the risk for UK sites than just relying on action being taken against the bigger boys before the tiddlers are challenged, even though that's probably what will happen.

[simmons1]

So, this one has been around and around!

Lots of comments and people's opinions about the new legislation but nothing that answers my original question: what do we do addressing the new UK/EU law (for UK-hosted, UK-based business' websites) and meeting the ICO requirements?
Or should we just remove Statcounter scripts from websites? And also remove Google Analytics?

I am disappointed that there has not been more direct information/guidance from Statcounter (especially since it is an Irish site and is directly affected by the EU legislation).

No good doing an impression of an ostrich and hoping it will go away!

[splatcat]

I'm looking at this (this isn't a recommendation, I'm still investigating)

http://www.wolf-software.com/downloa...jpecr-package/

[DavyAndDavy]

Originally Posted by simmons1

what do we do addressing the new UK/EU law (for UK-hosted, UK-based business' websites) and meeting the ICO requirements?
Or should we just remove Statcounter scripts from websites? And also remove Google Analytics?

Asking for user consent will just result in meaningless analytics so if you want analytics without asking for consent simply follow the UK ICO guidelines published in December 2011.

Specifically:

Remove StatCounter (3rd party cookies).
(Continue to) use Google Analytics (1st party cookies).
Put a clear and detailed explanation, somewhere on your website, about the GA cookies that are being used and why.
Add a prominent link on each page to that explanation.

That's it. (I already said this in post number 3)

[StatCounterJen]

Hi folks,

You can now disable the use of StatCounter cookies on your site if you wish.

• Go to "Projects"
• Click the "wrench" or "spanner" icon beside your project name
• In the left menu bar, click "cookie opt-out"

Opting out of using cookies will adversely affect some of your stats but the vast majority of your stats will continue to be accurately tracked.

The cookie opt out page provides full information on the stats affected.

We hope this new option is useful for you.

[simmons1]

Thanks for the new fuctionality.
Having spent more time reading (including the guide here:
http://www.international-chamber.co....-cookie-guide/ )
I have added an opt-in/opt-out script to one of the websites I manage for a client's business to try out.
It is not only necessary to give visitors the option, but also to update/add a Privacy Policy to the website clearly explaining what you do, and how and why you do it.

[DavyAndDavy]

Originally Posted by StatCounterJen

Hi folks,

You can now disable the use of StatCounter cookies on your site if you wish.

Thanks for that. Disabling cookies now makes it possible to have StatCounter on EU sites without seeking consent to use cookies.

Have you had any thoughts about changing to using 1st party cookies which the UK ICO is "allowing" on UK sites for analytical purposes?

[webmonkey]

Originally Posted by Lawman

There is a legal requirement and we in the UK must comply or risk prosecution.

Precisely. You must comply. Statcounter don't need to, which may be why they have chosen not to comment. Moreover, AFAIK, the legislation says that any business whose website is exclusively targeted to non-EU audiences will not have to comply. I guess that would cover most of SC's customers.

[Rory_A]

We're definitely trying to do our part to help out our users who are effected by this law. As time passes it will become more clear exactly who is effected and how. As Jenni mentioned we currently have a cookie opt out feature in place to keep people in compliance.

Please do note that we're not a very big company so we're not able to personally pop into every discussion even though we wish we could. So if we're ever absent from a convo it's likely because (a) we're unaware the convo is even happening or (b) we're tied up with other StatCounter stuff.

Regards