From May 25th, new European privacy laws will almost certainly have an effect on the way websites track your browsing data using cookies. However, before we go into the details of the new legislation, it is important to provide a little bit of information on just what cookies are and how they work.

Cookies (we\’re talking online cookies, not the sort you eat!) have always received a lot of (mostly unfair) negative attention, and many people are quick to distrust them without seeking to learn about them or understand what cookies actually do. There is an automatic assumption that they are in some way sinister, but they’re actually just tiny bits of data that have the potential to help make browsing the internet an awful lot more straightforward and convenient for you.

Cookies are small text files that store simple information which your web browser then uses when communicating with a website. These bits of data are commonly used for things like saving website preferences so that you don’t have to repeatedly change settings upon each and every visit to a website, or saving the contents of a shopping basket at an eCommerce site like Amazon so that you don’t have to go through the checkout process for each individual item you want to buy.

In rare cases, certain kinds of cookies can be used for more sinister things, but modern browsers always warn the user when dangers are present on untrusted websites and block them, and all anti-virus applications will also catch and eliminate these potential problems should they manage to make their way onto a computer.

The new European legislation, in short, requires websites to explicitly ask visitors to allow or deny cookies from storing any data. However, the specifics of the new law are all a bit unclear right now. Modern web browsers already tend to have a preference setting which allows or denies cookies to be stored by default, and it’s currently not known whether a user setting their browser to allow cookies will be considered consenting from the perspective of this new law.

So, how will it affect website owners? Well, most of you won’t have to do anything or make any changes to your sites to accommodate it. Cookies will only store data from websites with more complex aspects, such as a user login system, or eCommerce functionality.

And for those of you who are running eCommerce websites and are concerned about the new privacy rules, you needn’t worry just yet. It’s estimated that, although the European law comes into effect on May 25th, it will take a little longer for the UK version to be implemented – most likely in the Autumn, and once it’s in place it should only require minor adjustments to your site.

For more information on cookies and the new legislation, feel free to check out the following links:

Wikipedia\’s (really good) article on cookies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Http_cookie

A recent article about the law, and how the UK Government is working on a practical browser-based solution: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/09/govt_working_on_browser_solution_for_new_cookie_law/.

Author Bio: Rob James is the lead web designer at Skyblu, a charity web design company based in London and Worcester and serving clients all over the UK.

Category: Internet
Keywords: cookies, european legislation, charity web design