Leosghost - 11:10 pm on May 31, 2012 (gmt 0)

Except that they choose to pay what taxes they pay ..outside the UK..

Were the decision to chase them for compliance based upon where they were "fiscally domiciled" ( as accepted by UK HMRO and HMCE ) it would make a little more sense..not much but a "little" :)

Also sending it to such as the BBC who were in total compliance from "day 1" and verification of such "compliance" would have take a mere 5 minute "browser visit" by the ICO...the "if" in "If your organisation has not yet achieved compliance" would have been made totally redundant..and the postage cost and secretarial time involved in the drafting and sending of that letter saved for the UK taxpayer :)

But then had the ICO only sent letters to those who were not "complying", they would not have appeared to be "looking busy" "enforcing" and "having a clue" in the eyes of the general public..

They don't care about their image with us , any more than they care about actual compliance by those who are really doing the intrusive tracking that the laws were drawn up to rein in ..

Either the ICO are trying to ignore the "Elephant in the room"..( Google and their "personalisation" tracking via analytics, history , doubleclick etc ) and pass the responsibility off on webmasters who use Google's products ..( one must remember the influence of Google goes to the very top in UK politics..so they can have laws and their enforcement "tailored" to suit them )..or the ICO genuinely don't have a clue..

The problem is, having read the ICO statements and seen their "interviews", it is very difficult to decide whether they have been told what to do by politicians who wish to make others ( small webmasters) responsible for the "elephant crap" and the personalisation tracking/ stalking by Google..or if they genuinely don't have a clue, but are blowing smoke and spinning mirrors to the IT illiterate ( of which they may well be part ) until their pensions fall due, or they can get jobs with those whom they are supposed to be protecting the voters from..

The abrupt career changes of certain ex members of the FTC charged with investigating Google in the USA come to mind..perhaps the ICO are hoping to be offered such career enhancing opportunities before the heat gets turned up on the Elephant..if it ever does..so much more simple, to make some distracting and camouflaging smoke, roasting some webmasters over third party cookies in the legislative barbecue..