I wrote a blog post recently: http://www.storm-consultancy.com/blog/misc-web-stuff/the-cookie-monster/ following our conversation on MCG last time.
The ICO results are startling (90% of people don't "ok" the use of the cookie). A couple of people on Twitter made the good point following this post that the law actually allows cookies that are "essential for the site to operate". Even ICO does this with some of their cookies - http://www.ico.gov.uk/news/current_topics/new_pecr_rules.aspx. I'd probably argue that good analytics is essential for any site to operate, but that may not be what they mean :-)
Personally, I'd like to see you lot (I can say this now I'm no longer a manager at a museum!) doing some strong lobbying to government [whoever] on this rather than just accepting what is clearly a bit of a dodgy, unworkable law. Couldn't the MCG help as a channel to help gather institutional viewpoints on this? How about a survey to try and capture how outstanding it has been / is being having coherent and meaningful statistics across the sector? Am I actually right in assuming that stats are vital to the running of any good web presence? Would we be able to do our jobs as effectively if we had to go back to logfile analysis (urgh)? Are we just going to throw away the amazing work from C24 et al…?
The single biggest danger of this law as far as I can see is that it's likely that almost no commercial entities will pay any notice to it at all. Almost all not-for-profits, government bodies, charities etc on the other hand will have to. Our sector will comply, a year will pass, the government will backtrack (because everyone else will be carrying on regardless) and we'll have just wasted time, money and a years' worth of good analytics.
Finally, I think ICO's example is actually a pretty poor one - it's a badly worded piece of text stuck onto the top of the page. I wouldn't click it because it's pretty unclear what it is all about. I'm reasonably sure that if it'd been designed well and thought about better then their 90% would be an awful lot lower.
In short.. I don't think institutions should necessarily just "turn off" cookies but instead think about creative ways to respond to this law. This may be design, it may be lobbying.
cheers
Mike
_____________________________
Mike Ellis
We do nice web stuff: http://thirty8.co.uk (http://thirty8.co.uk/)
** I've written a book: http://heritageweb.co.uk (http://heritageweb.co.uk/) **
On Monday, 12 December 2011 at 15:46, Graham Sherwood wrote:
> http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2130520/google-struggling-meet-cookie-law-requirements
>
> That link appears broken, however I came across this news snippet. I've been looking at this with interest. If no simple solution is found (i.e. one that doesn't annoy the visitors to our website), I'll remove Google Analytics and all tracking from our website.
>
> But then we are in a different boat to Museums as we don't have a requirement to analyse our visitors in the same way. If anything for us it's a marketing tool (if used).
>
> , Graham
>
>
> Graham Sherwood
> IT Manager
> Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd
> Unit 54, Brockley Cross Business Centre, 96 Endwell Road, London SE4 2PD
> tel: 020 7639 9091
> fax: 020 7639 9588
> [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])
> www.pre-construct.com (http://www.pre-construct.com)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Little, David
> Sent: 12 December 2011 14:32
> To: [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])
> Subject: Re: What's everyone doing to avoid breaching the "Cookie law"
>
> Hi,
>
> I've just come across this Google Analytics discussion which might have
> some useful info:
>
> http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Analytics/thread?tid=5c6531d00
> ad87ffe&hl=en
>
> There are a couple of points made in there that state that cookies for Web
> analytics would be exempt from the law -- in the UK at least.
>
> Best wishes,
> David
>
> --
> David Little
> Research developer: User Interface Design
> Department of Digital Humanities
> King's College London
> 26-29 Drury Lane
> London WC2B 5RL
>
> Office: +44(0) 20 7848 1237
> Mobile: +44(0) 77 6596 5655
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Mosoddik, Bilkis" <[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])>
> Reply-To: Museums Computer Group <[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])>
> Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:00:42 +0000
> To: "[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])" <[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])>
> Subject: Re: What's everyone doing to avoid breaching the "Cookie law"
>
> > Thanks Jon, that would be really useful.
> >
> > Bilkis Mosoddik
> Web Content Manager
> Museum of London
>
> 150 London
> > Wall
>
> London EC2Y 5HN
> Tel: 020 7814 5723
> Email:
> > [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])
>
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> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jon
> > Pratty
> > Sent: 12 December 2011 13:56
> > To: [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])
> > Subject: Re: What's everyone doing to avoid breaching the "Cookie law"
> >
> > Janet
> >
> > I'm not aware we've done this yet, but I will follow up internally, then
> > disseminate to the list, as I said.
> >
> > Jon Pratty
> > Relationship Manager, Digital and Creative Economies Arts Council England
> > +441273 763037
> > 07872419194
> > [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])
> >
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> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of J
> > DAVIS
> > Sent: 12 December 2011 13:55
> > To: [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])
> > Subject: Re: What's everyone doing to avoid breaching the "Cookie law"
> >
> > Hasn't ACE provided advice for culture sector on what to do to comply
> > with the "Cookie Law"?
> > I would have thought it would be useful if Government or relevant
> > agencies provided suitable guidance on this for all public
> > sector/publicly-funded organisations' websites.
> >
> > Janet
> >
> > Janet E Davis
> >
> >
> >
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