Business can now rely on the Cookie Consent Guide
22 May 2012
Business can now rely on 'Cookie
Consent Guide' to meet EU e-privacy strategic
requirements
The UK is set to start enforcing the law
regulating online cookies - data used by websites to identify or
authenticate visitors. To help businesses understand the
requirements across Europe, a new tool is now available that will
help guide compliance in a realistic manner.
The ’Cookie Consent Guide’ has been developed
by leading European firm Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP, exclusively
for DataGuidance, a leading global data protection and privacy
resource. The Guide seeks to aid companies designing ‘an
appropriate strategy, to obtain consent for cookies across all EU
Member States.’
The Guide, available as part of DataGuidance’s
online global resource, offers a colour-coded and number-graded
table addressing cookies by function and local law by a level of
perceived intrusiveness. Read more at: www.dataguidance.com/cookies.
“Getting compliance right in this area is a
balancing exercise between legal certainty and commercial
imperatives”, said Eduardo
Ustaran, Partner at Field Fisher Waterhouse and Head
of the firm’s Privacy and
Information Law Group. “The Guide is a single
resource that can help companies understand how far they need to go
to meet the law’s requirements.”
Recent research reports have drawn media
attention to the fact that few consumers are aware of the new EU
law, but actions by companies to comply will change that quickly,
according to Lindsey Greig, Managing Editor of DataGuidance.
“We have been watching government action on
privacy and consumer interest in the subject for nearly 10 years
and the pattern is quite consistent,” Greig said. “Government
oversight prompts a commercial response resulting in wider consumer
awareness. It is a bit of a dance, but we all wind up winning.”
The changes in the law require that companies
placing cookies on visitors’ computers obtain consent by providing
them with clear and comprehensive information about how the cookies
will be used.
The Guide notes that the burden on website
operators is to identify cookies in use, assess their relative
intrusiveness, provide clear and comprehensive information to users
and implement an appropriate strategy for confirming consent.
Notes to editors:
DataGuidance is the leading global data
protection and privacy compliance resource tool.
Working with over 100 lawyers and coverage of
157 jurisdictions, DataGuidance keeps its growing community of
subscribers on top of the complex matrix of national laws and
regulations, in a quick, easy to navigate, clear database.
In addition, the expert Guidance Notes and
At-A-Glance Advisories provide a quick-take on both global coverage
and local compliance.
Field Fisher Waterhouse is a European law firm
specialising in providing commercial solutions for highly
regulated, technology driven, and IP rich organisations. Its
internationally recognised Privacy and Information Law Group
advises global organisations on business-critical privacy and data
protection projects.
For further information, please
contact:
Paula Nugent, PR Executive, Field
Fisher Waterhouse LLP on 020 7861 4526
Louise Eckersley, PR Manager,
Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP on 020 7861 4120