{"id":2619,"date":"2012-05-14T10:24:04","date_gmt":"2012-05-14T10:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/?p=2619"},"modified":"2013-03-12T08:45:44","modified_gmt":"2013-03-12T08:45:44","slug":"new-eu-cookie-law-guidelines-for-users-and-website-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.webseoanalytics.com\/blog\/new-eu-cookie-law-guidelines-for-users-and-website-owners\/","title":{"rendered":"New EU Cookie law: Guidelines for users and website owners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The EU \u201cCookie\u201d Law comes into effect on 25 May 2012<\/strong> and all EU countries will be required to follow it. The new law will definitely have an impact on the already weakened economy of Europe since it will affect all online shops and websites. According to the Wired UK<\/a> \u201cCompliance with the EU’s “cookie law” could cost the UK economy as much as \u00a310 billion if implemented incorrectly, according to a “worst case scenario”\u201d. In this article we explain the changes that took place, the options that you have as a webmaster and we provide an example of how you should structure your new Privacy Policy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

According to the Directive 2009\/136\/EC according to article 5 (3):<\/p>\n

\u201cMember States shall ensure that the storing of information, or the gaining of access to information already stored, in the terminal\u00a0 equipment of a subscriber or user is only allowed on condition that the subscriber or user concerned has given his or her <\/strong><\/span>consent<\/span>, <\/span>having been provided with clear and comprehensive information<\/span><\/strong>, in accordance with Directive 95\/46\/EC, inter alia, about the purposes of the processing<\/span>. This shall not prevent any technical storage or access for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network, or as strictly necessary in order for the provider of an information society service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user to provide the service.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Field Fisher Waterhouse (2012) there’s a full list of EU countries in which the Article 5(3) has been implemented or not, what the implementation status is,\u00a0 strict \u201copt-in<\/strong>\u201d consent required (or expected) and what the legal requirements are. The case in point, the country is stated and whether or not the Article 5(3) has been implemented:<\/p>\n

YES: <\/strong>Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France,\u00a0 Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Sweden, United Kingdom<\/p>\n

NO:<\/strong> Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain<\/p>\n

N\/A: <\/strong>Estonia<\/p>\n

For more information about the countries who implemented it you can check the Full Table<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What is a Cookie?<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n

A cookie is a text-based file<\/strong> located onto your computer containing information that can be accessed by the visited website. Generally, cookies help enhance the user’s experience whenever they visit a website. What define cookies are 3 basic characteristics:<\/p>\n

1. Statistical reporting<\/h3>\n

Website owners can be helped by statistical reporting in order to enhance the features of their website for the user needs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

2. Behavioural Advertising<\/h3>\n

A user can conduct a search for a certain product for which he\/she is interested in.\u00a0 The cookie can identify the product for which the user is interested in and consecutively -the cookie- will display advertisements<\/strong> which are relevant to the user queries.<\/p>\n

3. Tracking conversions<\/h3>\n

When a user visits and online shop, he\/she can browse products and consecutively he\/she can select products for which he\/she is interested in purchasing.\u00a0 In other words, online commerce websites use cookies to recognize you and speed up<\/strong> the shopping process the next time you visit the website.<\/p>\n

Type of Cookies<\/h2>\n

The most common types of cookies which can be found on most websites are:<\/p>\n

Geotargeting cookies<\/h3>\n

Completely anonymous and identifies the country<\/strong> that the user comes from.<\/p>\n

Third party cookies<\/h3>\n

Social media sharing buttons (e.g. Tweet Share, Facebook, Google+ etc)<\/p>\n

Registration Cookies<\/h3>\n

These cookies identify on which account<\/strong> the user is signed in with. Also it enables the use of other server-side technologies such as sessions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Advertising Cookies<\/h3>\n

These cookies are also anonymous and they store information about the content that the user is browsing. They are used by advertising networks to serve relevant ads<\/strong> to the users.<\/p>\n

Google Analytics cookies<\/h3>\n

They are also completely anonymous as they do not recognise the true identity of the user. These cookies are solely used to collect information on how users use the website, which pages they use more often, from which country they come etc.<\/p>\n

What the website owners should do?<\/h2>\n

The new law leaves Webmasters with 3 main options<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Theoretically one option is to ignore the Privacy Policy. However by neglecting intentionally on working upon their new Privacy Policy, it could result to a fine<\/strong> by their national Data Protection Authorities.<\/li>\n
  2. The website owners could deactivate<\/strong> the use of cookies for their websites. However, it should be taken into account the fact that deactivating the cookies could have an impact on the functionality<\/strong> of the website.<\/li>\n
  3. The website could comply with EU directive by adjusting the Privacy Policy<\/strong> to the needs of their website.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Taking into account the fact that each website is different the structure of each policy should be differentiated.<\/p>\n

    How to Structure your new Privacy Policy<\/h2>\n

    Practically depending on the type of the website (online shop\/online commerce website, internet marketing agency etc), the Privacy Policy should be adjusted to the needs of each website separately<\/strong>. Nevertheless below we provide an example of how to structure your Privacy Policy to make it compatible with the new EU law.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/div>\n

    The structure of a Privacy policy should be as below:<\/p>\n

    Introduction<\/h3>\n

    On your introduction, you can mention and explain the following matters:<\/p>\n

    How you handle<\/strong> user data?<\/p>\n

    How you protect<\/strong> that information?<\/p>\n

    Mention that you respect<\/strong> the sensitive data of your users and that you protect their privacy.<\/p>\n

    Describe what the national DPA<\/strong> (Data protection Authority) says, according to the EU Directive.<\/p>\n

    Provide the definition of the cookie and include all the uses of cookies on the website:<\/p>\n