Well I'm not sure how the cookie monster will take this news, but if you haven't heard online advertising and tracking is threatened by Europe's new cookie law.

If the new law is passed within the next few weeks, websites in the EU will be required to seek consent from users before serving cookies which will ensure more pop-ups for customers to click on for consent. This requirement will go into effect eighteen (18) months after the bill is signed somewhere around December 14th.

Now of course your asking yourself, why didn't I heard about this? Well don't worry, your not disconnected... this cookie requirement, similar to German cookie law, is attached/hidden in a new telecom package which seeks clauses that requires a court's authority before an individual can be disconnected from the internet for illegal downloading. EU's Council of Ministers and Parliament are in disagreement over that single clause in the package of laws. The rest of the package which includes the cookie plan is closed and agreed to, but for the cookie plan to go into effect the ENTIRE package has to pass. So if we are lucky and they can't agree to the rest of the package by December 14th, then we are safe. If they do agree, then cookies will be opt-in in the EU.

The law does however make an exception for cookies that are "strictly necessary" to provide a service. So anything requiring a cookie that helps a shopper get from a product page to a checkout doesn't require a consent notice. A consent notice through will be still required for cookies that are used in traffic analysis or advertising. For most of us we might have some issues here.

The current law says that sites using cookies must give visitors "clear and comprehensive information" about the purpose of the cookies and must offer visitors "the right to refuse" the use of cookies.

What's happening here is that many websites don't seem to offer the clear and comprehensive information and the right to refuse mentioned in the current law. An example of choice can be seen on Eloqua's website here. So what we see happening here is they are making it a requirement; short, sweet, and clear.

Stayed tuned, hopeful our cookies won't go stale on us.

-Dennis
Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

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