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Ie10 And Tracking Cookies And Eu Legislation


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Hi all,

I've seen a bit in the news recently about Microsofts announcement that IE10 will have tracking cookies turned off by default. Apparently Chrome and Firefox are both doing the same. I have also read that recent EU legislation appears to demand that a website declare that it uses cookies, although there does appear to be a bit of confusion about this.

 

Would I be right in thinking that the type of cookies used for php work and sessions are not tracking cookies and that tracking cookies are a certain type (flavour!) of cookie that are a potential privacy issue?

 

What makes we wonder otherwise is that 2 websites I've visited recently, the BBC news and a UK building society both have big banners accross the top declaring that their websites use cookies. As someone who is currently working on a website that will use sessions if the user turns off cookies (or they are turned off by default) the whole website would grind to a halt, would it not? Sessions need a cookie don't they?

 

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

Cheers

Paul

 

PS Larry. Would this be a good subject for your excellant monthly 'What is Larry thinking?'?

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I got in a long discussion about this recently on one of the boards here with some other members. (If I can find the link to the thread, I'll attach it here.)

Anyway, I read the entire EU Cookie Law among other related materials, and the conclusion I reached is that the EU Cookie Law in its current state is pretty vague on what classifies as a cookie.

I think the law was left vague for two main reasons:

1) It was written by legislators that understand little about technology and the inner-workings of cookies.

2) By leaving the law vague at first, it leaves it open to be solidified on a country-by-country basis as individual cases go to the courts.

 

With that said, while sessions do technically use a cookie, I'm pretty sure they won't become a problem under the new cookie law. The law (while not stated explicitly) does seem to pertain mainly to third-party cookies like the ones you suggested. As such, I don't imagine sessions will ever be an issue (depending, of course, on what info is stored in the session).

 

And yeah, you're right, if sessions weren't allowed, the Web as we know it would come to a standstill.

Anyway, hopefully Larry or some other people can offer their opinions as well, but that's my two cents.

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Blimey, HartleySan, you read the entire EU Cookie Law, that was brave! Were you having trouble sleeping?

 

Thanks for the quick response and my impressions were similiar with regard to the EU law and to tracking cookies.

 

Cheers

Paul

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  • 6 months later...

The best article I found on this so far is: http://gigaom.com/europe/cookie-law-explainer/

 

A technical explanation (legally) is: http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/privacy_and_electronic_communications/the_guide/cookies.aspx

 

The most important thing is this only applies to people and businesses in the EU. If you and your business aren't in the EU, don't sweat it. It seems that many sites that do have to comply do so by having a clearly stipulated cookie policy.

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