EU cookie law: UK sites start to comply

Nearly one third (63%) of top UK websites have taken steps to address the new EU Cookie Directive, which aims to warns users when their data is being tracked online.

The new research, from data privacy management firm TRUSTe, looked at UK website compliance efforts to date.
TRUSTe’s analysis reveals that nearly two in three top UK websites have implemented at least some measures to address the Directive, including several who have implemented robust and user-friendly compliance solutions. TRUSTe’s study reviewed both compliance efforts and tracking activities on top UK consumer websites.
Of the 231 websites included in the TRUSTe Privacy Index: UK Compliance and Tracking Edition, 12% had implemented prominent privacy notices with robust cookie controls; 51% had minimal privacy notices with limited cookie controls, and 37% did not appear to have taken any steps to comply with the Directive.
Of those sites that had not yet taken any visible compliance action, 49% had a low number of third-party cookies present on their site (0-25), 35% had a moderate level of third-party cookies (26-50) and 16% had a high level of third-party cookies (> 50).
Overall, 56% of the sites examined in this study had moderate to high levels of third-party trackers, but within this group only 17% had implemented robust compliance solutions combining prominent privacy notices and strong cookie controls.
Some of the best examples of robust compliance solutions leveraged creative approaches that made the implementations especially user-friendly.
Toyota, for example, made it very simple for users to control cookie settings on their site and provided individual descriptions of cookie purposes (e.g. “Locate your dealer with Google Maps”).

Similarly, Barclays’ website displayed a clear privacy notice directing users to a page explaining the purpose of each cookie whilst giving the user readily accessible cookie preference controls.

Companies have also worked hard to ensure that the messaging is applicable to their users and consistent with their brand as shown in Aldo Shoes implementation of TRUSTe’s Consent Manager on their site, where customers who click on “Cookie Preferences” are asked if they are “Cool with cookies?”

Chris Babel, CEO TRUSTe said: “Based on our analysis it is clear that many companies have started to take the EU Cookie Directive seriously and devoted time and resources to implement a compliance solution that helps their users control the tracking activity on their site.
At the same time it is clear that some companies have yet to put a compliance solution in place. We at TRUSTe, alongside the industry bodies and regulators, will continue to work with companies to help them implement solutions appropriate to their business model.”
Source: http://www.truste.co.uk.