Thursday 30 June 2016

Cookies Law Explained

So the first thing that one sees on stepping into a website is the disclaimer that the website stores cookies in browsers and one wonders why is that required and why the extra click? Surely, you would not get to see it without a compelling reason.

Well the reason is certainly not a best practice or a guideline that is recommended but rather a law in itself. This is a law across EU and by now even implemented with major companies being imposed penalties for not adhering.

So why is the law required – The law is more under the theme of privacy protection and the mere purpose of the cookies explains the reason for this law. Simply put, it is a text file. These are saved on the user’s computer which the web site retrieves on the next visit by when your information and preferences are saved thus leading to privacy of the user being impacted and hence the law requiring disclosure that the website is saving the user details.

Web development Company in Mumbai

So if the law existed since 2011, what makes website development companies to wake up  4-5 later and why really adhere to it when the developers nor the clients are not domiciled in EU. For eg. does a web development company in Mumbai  designing websites for a client in the middle east have to adhere to it after all it’s a EU regulation. Or does the website of a digital agency in Mumbai need to have the disclaimer? Well, irrespective what could be the real legal stand, what prompted most web designers to follow the trend was the big daddy Google.

Google asked all its users of its cookie-serving products (AdSense, Google Analytics, etc ) that they should add a cookie opt-in to their pages, or be suspended from these  product offering. This is applicable to users domiciled across the world. This by itself was enough compulsion to prompt developers, designers and digital marketers to oblige given the impact on SEO.
So surely, the next time you see the disclosure it rings a bell!