Dear All
Many thanks to all the helpful souls out there who replied to my initial query. I'm still recieving e-mails about it but the flow has died down somewhat so I think it's safe to feedback at this point.
Of those respondents who disclosed what their authority does with cookies, 1 asks for explicit consent to collect them via a pop-up, 5 provide information about the website's policy of collecting cookies and how to opt-out, and 2 (including Coventry) had ceased collection of cookies entirely and thus could collect no virtual visitor stats via Google Analytics.
A great number of responses provided useful advice and information regarding compliance with the EU Cookie directive. To sum up, it was initially expected that the ICO would require organisations to gain explicit consent to collect cookies (ie. via a pop-up asking permission), it was then agreed at a late stage that implicit consent would be sufficient to ensure compliance. However, in their words "If you are relying on implied consent you need to be satisfied that your users understand that their actions will result in cookies being set. Without this understanding you do not have their informed consent [...] You should not rely on the fact that users might have read a privacy policy that is perhaps hard to find or difficult to understand."
Problems seem to have been encountered where councils have either stopped collecting cookies entirely (hence no virtual visitor stats can be collected at all) or have overcomplied with the directive, asked for explicit consent and thus encountered a sharp drop in the numbers of website visitors who choose to allow cookies and whose visits can be counted. The middle way seems sensible.
The importance of measuring and indeed stimulating all virtual customer interactions lies in the current trend towards channel shift and if libraries are unable to count their virtual visits it may mean that we appear to be providing less value for money than is actually the case (making us more vulnerable to funding cuts). The average cost of servicing enquiries through the different channels as reported in the latest annual Customer Access Improvement Service briefing from SOCITM is:
• £8.62 per visit for face-to-face
• £2.83 per call for phone
• £0.15 per visit to a council website
Kind regards
Phil Jones
ICT & Information Coordinator
Coventry Libraries and Information Services
Floor 1, West Orchards House
28-34 Corporation Street
Coventry
CV1 1GF
Tel: 024 7683 2329
Fax: 024 7683 2180
Email:[log in to unmask]
Visit us at www.coventry.gov.uk/libraries
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