Cookie Law update - IMPORTANT

The International Chamber of Commerce UK (ICC) has just launched it’s cookie law guide for businesses which has been positively received by the ICO, the UK government’s regulatory body for electronic communications.

This 15 page ICC guide provides useful information and advice on how to approach the new cookie law and defines the cookies used on websites into four separate categories (although, naturally, there is a degree of overlap). The categories they use are, in broad terms:

1. Strictly necessary cookies (make the website work so no opt-in required)
2. Performance cookies (includes analytics - opt-in required)
3. Functionality cookies (remembering visitor actions etc. - opt-in required)
4. Targeting or Advertising cookies (self-explanatory - opt-in required)

Our interest was particuarly taken by catergories 2 and 3 and the suggested wording the ICC say you can use on your business website as part of the cookie information you have to provide to gain visitor opt-ins, it states:

“By using our [website][online service], you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device.”

To our understanding this does not fully meet the ICO’s desired opt-in criteria, and having spoken to the ICO regarding this ICC guide we were left none the wiser. Reading between the lines though, we believe this document offers a good place to start preparing for cookie law compliance and following the advice it offers will probably put you in good stead for the months ahead as it demonstrates a clear and detailed attempt to comply with the new law.

The major plus point is it allows you to do this without expressly seeking opt-in consent for non-intrusive analytic cookies.

The views in this ICC document might change as it gets reviewed on a regular basis, but we think it still gives a good overview as to where the emphasis needs to be placed when seeking website visitor opt-in permissions and the details that need to be included. This is a follow-up article to our three-part series on the new cookie law which can be viewed here:

Article 1, Article 2, Article 3.

If you want professional input to make your website compliant why not call our BBI team on 01494 452600 or contact them via the BBI website. Or you could watch the BBI video on the new cookie law first.