Locations
26 May marks the first anniversary of the coming into force of the legal requirement to obtain consent for the use of cookies and the end of the ICO's self-imposed enforcement moratorium. However law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP believes that many organisations are still confused and unprepared for the forthcoming changes.
Under the law, website operators must give visitors clear and comprehensive information about their website's use of cookies and obtain visitor's consent when setting cookies.
Eduardo Ustaran, head of Fieldfisher’s Privacy and Information Law Group said:
"There is a sense of panic in the air as the ICO's self imposed deadline to begin enforcing the cookie consent requirement approaches and as a result we have seen a compliance rush in the past few weeks. Many website operators are shocked to see the amount and nature of the cookies served via their sites.
"However this is not an issue which can be quickly improvised. This is a critical business decision in which organisations need to balance compliance certainty with the potential commercial impact of tweaking their site. Even though it is unlikely the ICO will fine companies for non-compliance, the ICO will ensure that infringing sites are forced to get their house in order within a limited period of time.
"There are four essential steps that organisations should take to ensure compliance. Firstly websites should be audited to identify which cookies it serves. Next an assessment needs to be made of the intrusiveness of the cookies served by the website to inform how prominent cookie consent notices should be. Thirdly, a consent strategy for the website needs to be decided. Finally, the consent strategy needs to be implemented, this will require technical and operational changes to your website."
For further information, please contact:
Louise Eckersley, PR Manager, Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP on 020 7861 4120