Archived Boards and Threads... > SMF Feedback and Discussion

New European Cookie Laws

<< < (7/29) > >>

JohnS:
CoreISP>> I think we will have to agree to disagree! There is no doubt that the Netherlands Law although based on the same directive is different to the UK Law. In addition the USA and UK have bilateral agreements in place that extend jurisdiction so in some cases it can be different countries same laws. Though meant for the big bad boys and unlikely to be used against the odd cookie, they do exist. Best wishes.

JohnS:
Just to update this, if anyone is interested I have a re-validation scheme that forces all current users to revalidate accepting new terms and conditions. The code is not what I would call a totally user friendly release, but it is functional with a little care or php knowledge. If there is demand I could consider tidying it all up.
John

MrMorph:
Has anyone actually seen any sites that have explicitly asked for approval to use cookies yet.  I have not seen one yet myself, but hang on to that code ;)

Jonathan UK:
I think, understandably, that there is a lot of confusion surrounding these laws (ie the European cookie law, as implemented variously by different European states).

From a UK perspective, I believe that we are actually already subject to the new law. The government has chosen, however, to allow a one year grace period (which we are currently part way through), during which time webmasters should be able to show (if challenged) that they are making demonstrable efforts towards implementing changes to their website(s) such that they will be fully compliant with the law by the time the grace period ends.

Also, I think that discussions about adding a permission statement within a forum's registration Ts and Cs are, with respect, missing the point. It's my belief that the law (as implemented in the UK) requires a user to be given the opportunity to opt out of cookie use at the very moment that they arrive on your site. This applies regardless of whether they are an existing forum member or just an unregistered visitor who is passing through (and wishes to read some of the forum posts before they leave, but has no intention of registering and no need to read your Ts and Cs).

As the enforcer of this law in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office has implemented a pop-up permission box that appears as soon as you arrive on their site: www. ico. gov. uk (remove spaces).

I have various projects for which I want to use forum software. With the clock ticking down on the grace period, it's imperative for me that whatever forum I use includes an admin option that triggers an automatic permission gatherer like the one on the ICO's site. It also, obviously, needs to allow the user to either continue using the site without cookies (with restricted functionality, if necessary, like not being able to join) and that spells out what any "strictly necessary" cookies are used for and how.

I don't agree any forum can claim it's "strictly necessary" to use cookies because they're needed for logging in - purely and simply because not everyone wants to log in.

As, presumably, a US-based project, I don't know whether Simple Machines is prepared to add this kind of functionality. If not, they will be severely restricting their market as far as law-abiding UK and European webmasters are concerned. In the long run, I could easily see how a lack of interest / willingness to address this issue could easily lead to SM getting a bad reputation and even to forum publishers suffering quality score penalties in natural search rankings.

Kindred:
Sorry, Jonathan, but I disagree with your interpretation of the need for such an intrusive "warning".

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page