Back in May 2011 new legislation was announced that had a direct impact on all websites in the EU that use cookies. This legislation required that permission from the visitor was sought before the cookie was placed in their computer, and this was being managed the the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) who had announced that they would allow a 12 month grace period for websites to comply with the new legislation; this grace period ends in May 2012.

In December the ICO published a mid term report highlighting that very few websites had started planning their compliance and at the same time the issued an updated guide to the new legislation that clarified what websites need to do to become compliant.

Many website owners may not even realise their sites use cookies, however in most cases they will, and many commonplace services require these, such as Google Analytics, eCommerce Shopping Baskets, login information with a “Remember Me” check box etc. all use cookies to record information.

e64 have been reviewing this legislation and will be producing a package for all their customers to ensure their websites comply and we will be contacting all our customers to ensure their websites are compliant. However we can also help anyone else who owns a website and need to ensure it too is compliant and we have developed a very easy to use add-on that we can incorporate easily into any website, for more information about this package please contact e64.