During the last minute rush to get sites in the UK up to standard for meeting the "cookie law" deadline, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) moved the goalposts for UK site regulation.

In the last days before the law was due to come into force, the ICO suggested that "implied consent" would now be acceptable, and there was no need to demonstrate "explicit consent". This is a huge change, because it shifts some of the responsibility from website owners to users. Instead of the user stating explicitly what they agree to before browsing, the users consent can be implied in other ways. Implied consent can even be suggested by a site user's browser settings for the least intrusive cookies.

Giving the responsibility back to users undoubtedly gives them a better online experience than requiring explicit consent at every stage. As an experiment, go to your browser settings and specify that you want to be asked before accepting cookies. Next, try to browse, shop, bank or search without losing patience or shouting "Stop asking! I want the cookie!" To put it kindly, it's frustrating.

Sites rely on cookies for so many reasons, from saving shopping baskets, and identification to user preferences, social sharing and marketing statistics. Many site owners had complained that forcing users through an explicit consent process with decisions for each type of cookie was impractical and inconvenient.

More worryingly for UK businesses, the cookie consent could act as a barrier between the user and the service they are trying to access. And if users refused to allow cookies this could not just affect their experience on the site, but damage analytics and other important statistics for site owners. Sites which can't demonstrate their worth through analytics find it much harder to attract advertisers, and that can be devastating for an online business. This ICO guidance amendment could ease some of those fears for UK e-commerce. 

The ICO's move does, however, put the UK very slightly out of sync with the rest of Europe, and can make it confusing to deduce whether the EU or the UK are the ones in charge of the cookie jar.

According to the EU, the changes are now being enforced in the UK, and all sites will have to adhere to the new standards. If you are making changes to your site or considering a complete re-design, talk to Peach Digital about making sure your site is compliant as well as user-friendly.

Image courtesy of Mark J P on Flickr