With the new European Union directive on web cookies coming into force tommorrow, leading law firm Thomas Eggar offers the following comment.
“The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) advice has been issued, but pitched at a relatively basic level and with the ‘health warning’ that “the implementation of this new legislation is challenging and involves significant technological considerations”. Considerable efforts are being made by the businesses that produce browsers to develop enhanced browser settings which would be a more efficient way for obtaining user consent. But they have not been able to convince the government, yet, that the right level of measures have not only been developed, but are sufficiently available to users at the present time.
Curiously, the ICO also refers to a “phased implementation” which, coupled with the fact that the ICO has yet to issue guidance on the enforcement of the new law, means businesses will take comfort from the government’s assurance that the ICO will not be taking enforcement action against them if they are working to address their use of cookies. The huge commercial value to businesses of the information made available by cookies means that there is a large investment to be made in offering users appropriate and informed choices where the information stored could be intrusive.
Is it, once again, the law struggling to keep up with the rapid changes in social and business use of the Web? “
