The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)

Nao

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Re: The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)
« Reply #120, on May 25th, 2012, 01:12 PM »
Probably the case yeah.
But then again -- my latest Opera (a relatively fresh install) has the umtc stuff in my cookie list for wedge.org, even though, well, you can't say it's an old install of Opera... Right?

nend

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Re: The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)
« Reply #121, on May 25th, 2012, 04:23 PM »
Quote from markham on May 25th, 2012, 11:49 AM
@Ox - The BBC is using Geo-location to determine whether or not to seek cookie acceptance which better minds than mine reckon is a bit dangerous.
Don't look like Geo-location, I am in the USA and getting the same message on the BBC website.

Yay we are starting to censor communication more and more. I am thinking about writing a letter to your government who set up this law and tell them they are setting a bad example for the rest of the world. This is BS that you all have to code around this just for a few that are tracking users for unjust purposes.

Nao

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Re: The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)
« Reply #122, on May 25th, 2012, 05:37 PM »
Same in France.
Amusingly, they also store a cookie to keep your cookie preferences, even if you said you don't want any cookie... :lol:

nolsilang

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Re: The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)
« Reply #123, on May 25th, 2012, 05:50 PM »
A service from Cloudflare for cookie law
Code: [Select]
techcrunch.com/2012/05/25/cloudflare-to-launch-service-for-sites-dealing-with-tortuous-eu-cookie-law/

markham

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Re: The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)
« Reply #124, on May 25th, 2012, 06:34 PM »
Quote from nend on May 25th, 2012, 04:23 PM
Yay we are starting to censor communication more and more. I am thinking about writing a letter to your government who set up this law and tell them they are setting a bad example for the rest of the world. This is BS that you all have to code around this just for a few that are tracking users for unjust purposes.
Hey - don't blame us, we didn't invent this law! Blame the EU and in particular the Danish Commissioner who dreamt-up this load of malarkey.

Don't forget that "Do Not Track" is an American 'initiative' that could well be law[1]. And aren't Facebook and Google American corporations? But for them and their ilk, none of this would be necessary!  :P
 1. Strange isn't it, that all the later web browsers support DNT but few of them handle cookies correctly.

Arantor

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Re: The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)
« Reply #125, on May 25th, 2012, 06:44 PM »
I also think the people complaining about this law are also missing the point... it's not a law that's in the works - it's been law for a year, but not enforced at all until tomorrow.

There were complaints made at the time it was in the works. I wrote to my MP, though why the hell I thought that would make any difference, I have no idea...
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nend

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Re: The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)
« Reply #126, on May 25th, 2012, 06:57 PM »
I have been trying to fight my government on some of these ridiculous laws also. However one of the ways to fight them is to help others in other countries fight for their rights too. If you notice one country does it then the others follow, so maybe it is a matter a time til the USA does this. I feel if we can prove some of these laws useless then we might have a fighting chance at stopping them where they started.
Quote from markham on May 25th, 2012, 06:34 PM
Quote from nend on May 25th, 2012, 04:23 PM
Yay we are starting to censor communication more and more. I am thinking about writing a letter to your government who set up this law and tell them they are setting a bad example for the rest of the world. This is BS that you all have to code around this just for a few that are tracking users for unjust purposes.
Hey - don't blame us, we didn't invent this law! Blame the EU and in particular the Danish Commissioner who dreamt-up this load of malarkey.
Not blaming anyone here, maybe I came out misunderstood. Our government structures are more than likely different, so don't really know who is responsible for anything over there.

Arantor

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Re: The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)
« Reply #127, on May 25th, 2012, 07:03 PM »
Well, I think we need to see really how this law gets enforced before we can say any further. I suspect this law will turn out to be somewhat toothless.

nolsilang

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Re: The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)
« Reply #128, on May 27th, 2012, 04:43 AM »
Code: [Select]
http://h30565.www3.hp.com/t5/UK-Edition-start-here/Hurrah-ICO-flip-flops-on-UK-cookie-consent-law/bc-p/4111
Quote
However, the ICO has flip-flopped at the last minute, now saying that "Implied consent is a valid form of consent."

With these innocent-sounding eight words, the ICO has radically shifted the goalposts for most website owners. Depending on the context, there may now be no need to get users to click a button or checkbox, as long as your users understand that using the site will result in cookies being used.

Arantor

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Re: The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)
« Reply #129, on May 27th, 2012, 02:44 PM »
Which is all well and good for registered users. I see nothing that indicates that the session cookie has implied consent whatsoever, and certainly nothing that indicates the other cookies, that this law is meant to banish, will be permitted through 'implied consent'.

I tried reading the advice given, but that's just maddeningly unhelpful.

markham

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Re: The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)
« Reply #130, on May 27th, 2012, 08:30 PM »
One of the big problems with this law is the lack of precise definitions. Take "tracking cookie" as an example; what exactly does that mean? Does it mean only a cookie that is used to track your navigation along the information superhighway, or does the definition include cookies that track your movements within a given web site such as Wedge/SMF's session cookie?

I believe that clarification regarding session cookies was one of the questions Arantor asked in his so far unanswered email to ICO. But if a session cookie is classed as a tracking cookie, then surely the main SMF cookie is too.

Arantor

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Re: The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)
« Reply #131, on May 27th, 2012, 09:13 PM »
Yup, even though it's only tracking what a user is doing 'right now', it's still got a privacy concern attached.

But just for fun, and in defence of the thing I keep arguing in favour of, the number of guests now becomes hilariously inaccurate now, as feline indicated 70% or so of guests don't agree to the ECL thing, in which case the number of guests reported is probably only 30% of the number of actual guests... so why bother keeping it?

billy2

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Re: The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)
« Reply #132, on May 28th, 2012, 11:47 AM »
Got an email from one UK forum I use, goes as follows -
Quote
You are receiving this as a registered member of my internet forum. While we do not email users as a rule, we are required to update all registered users of our adherence to the new UK and European law in regards to our use of cookies on the site.

When registering to join as a member, you have already given express consent to our use of cookies as stipulated in our Privacy Statement (/forums/content/section/177-privacy-statement.html).

Further information about how the site uses cookies can be found here - /faq.php?faq=vb3_board_usage#faq_vb3_cookies

Your continued use of the site will be taken as a reaffirmation of your consent to us using cookies and storing them on your computer.

Regards
Thought you might be interested
<br /><br />cough, cough.

markham

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Re: The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)
« Reply #133, on May 28th, 2012, 11:51 AM »
Now I'm getting a bit confused: both Emanuele's ECL Mod and Live627 changed loadSession() to prevent cookies being set - but using different criteria[1] and yet guests are still being shown in "Who" and, where possible, what they are currently doing. This is the behaviour I believe many/most of us would prefer to retain.

That said though, I accept that the number of guests may be misleading. I have found, for instance, that not all Microsoft's bots identify themselves as such and that there may be others (even though I've added all known ones to the spider table). So that I understand the issues surrounding guests, are there any other circumstances that would make the number of guests online simply a guestimate?
 1. Emanuele's mod tests for the existence of the "cookie acceptance" cookie whilst Live627 (I think) tests if the session to be started is for a guest.

Arantor

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Re: The Cookie Law (in the UK at least)
« Reply #134, on May 28th, 2012, 02:43 PM »
@billy2: I would argue that that's acceptable within the bounds of implied consent.

@markham: The number of guests shown in Live's case is thoroughly misleading, I think. The problem is, it's thoroughly misleading in both directions, because it does actually fall back to Nao's suggestion of using IP addresses for tracking.

But without the session linking them together, if you make two requests, with a different IP address between them, that's now two guests, not one.