EU bleedin cookies law

Just one item on the agenda this Friday morn at the Castle.

I have had quite a few emails and a comment from Bernard about this pain in the arse E (IEIO) U cookie law thing. 

To be honest I am just as confused as most people, but after a lot of “Google-ing” and poking with a stick I think I may have it cracked-sort of.

I have picked and packed stuff from all over the net thingy.

First up, if you are a blogger all you probably need to do is tell your visitors how your blog uses cookies and the reason why;

Create a “privacy and cookie policy” and bung it on the footer of the home page (or all pages if you are very pedantic) of your site.

Shove a pic or something in the sidebar of the page/pages with text saying something like “This site uses cookies. Click here to find out more information about my cookie policy” with a link to the above.

Your cookie policy should explain:

What cookies you use and why-“This site uses Google Analytics cookies which help me to understand who is brain dead enough to visit my site, and what content they read, so I can improve the site for my readers.” (Which is bollocks but it sounds good).

The cookie is only used for the duration of your visit, and will expire when you close your web browser.”

Most browsers allow users to choose to not receive cookies. If you would prefer not to receive cookies from this site, please see http://www.allaboutcookies.org/ for information on how to set your browser not to receive cookies and delete existing cookies.” (After you have clicked on the “cookie" yes box so that you can actually read the bloody site)

Tell anyone daft enough to actually visit your blog that by continuing to use your website without changing their browser preferences, they are consenting to your use of cookies, and this means they will benefit from all the wonderful content you have copied and pasted….

The above text is only for guidance and should be edited to your own requirements.

But if you do bar cookies and delete existing ones any sites you have visited will not remember you and any passwords/information that have been saved will be lost if you revisit. 

Or another option is to have a small portion of header/footer text that is highlighted when a cookie is about to be set (this is what the ICO now does on its own website, after it managed a 90% fall in traffic by ballsing up the popup).

But if you must know about these things you can go to Here, Here or -oh sod it I can’t be bothered…

As to clicking on the Cookie thingy on other sites-basically if you don't say "Yes" to the cookies you won't be able to visit the site which before this Piss Poor "Law" used cookies to track your visits etc.

Or like me you can do bugger all and wait to see what happens, saving yourself a lot of fucking around…

Angus