That’s The Way The Cookie (Law) Crumbles

When it comes to the internet, nearly every website drops some sort of cookie on your browser, whether it is for functionally, accessibility or tracking for analytics. The new cookie law which will come into force on 26^th may 2012 will cause issues for both website developers/designers and the ordinary user.

So what does this mean for the average user?

As a user, every website you visit from the 26^th may 2012 will have some sort of cookie acceptant box or area forcing you to give the website permission to store small text files on your computer. Not only will this be come a tiresome process for you as a user every time you visit a site, day in day out.

However, if you use browsers like Firefox or Chrome, they have an option to clear the browser history, when the browser closes. Meaning every time you use the internet to go to your favourite websites you will need to keep accepting the cookies acceptant box over and over again. The flip side to this is, if you don’t accept the cookie acceptant box, some parts or most of the website will not work.

The next problem arises with most users not understanding the technology behind the scenes. Websites are built using different coding and scripting languages which use cookies for things to work. For example: Signing in to the website, viewing videos, using chat, the list goes on and on …

For the average user they just want to use the services of the website without getting bogged down in online technologies and techno babble.

What does this mean for site owners and creators?

Looking at it from a web developer/designers point of view the new cookie law is a joke and doesn’t help or protect the users. It’s the typical bureaucracy that comes out of the EU cog without any proper thought to what impact it will have on businesses or its website users.

We know at Network Intellect that as we develop/design websites the last thing a user wants is for us to create pop-up and acceptant boxes all over websites destroying the look and feel of the sites. Then you have the accessibility issue with people who are disabled and struggle to see content on the screen, let alone getting them to hunt for an acceptant box.

For business it’s a tool for collecting information about its users and how they use their sites, what type of things the user likes to do, what type of information the user is looking for, and on the analytics side of things, finding out who visited their websites and so forth, allowing the businesses to provide a better service and experience for their users by delivering Relevant and Personalised content / experience.

We will of course keep our clients and partners updated with Cookie Law developments. Please do not hesitate to contact us at Network Intellect to discuss this further.