Cookies and user opt-in

[nomis5]

I'm seeing one major UK site now having a pop up when you enter the site which says...... Since 26 May 2011, the law now states that cookies on websites can only be used with your specific consent....... it then goes on to say that they are working on how they can be compliant with this new law.

A couple of other less popular sites are also having similar write ups appear in their privacy policies. Any idea what has prompted a major UK site to suddenly take this law seriously?

[IanTurner]

Probably they were given a hint by inside sources that this particular law is going to be taken more seriously soon.

[dstiles]

The problem with implementing this law, which was proposed years ago, is that the legislators place no distinction between permanent cookies, which have to be deliberately planted, and temporary (session) cookies over which most web site owners (esp. IIS) have no control and which do not matter anyway - they are navigational aids during site access but dropped on browser closure.

I would have thought there was more danger from accepting the javascript popups than accepting session cookies. JS can cause real virus hazards and any fearful browser (eg Firefox+NoScript) will have it turned off so will not see the warnings anyway.

[johnmoose]

Once again legislators have no clue on how these technologies work.