news
Equitasit.co.uk compliant with new EU cookie directive
There is a new EU directive on the use of website cookies. It will come into effect in the UK in May 2012 but this site is now compliant with it regardless. This short article explains what the law is and how we are compliant.
Update Jan 6 2012
In order to safely maintain this website we have had to reintroduce the anonymous cookie mentioned below. Nothing about you or your visit is stored on it unless you are a logged in administrator. We are working to fix this so that the cookie is only supplied to logged in administrators.
About cookies and the law change
You may have seen in the recent news about the EU cookie directive. Cookies are small text files used by websites to store information on your web-browser. Often this information is anonymous and is popularly used to log you into a website on your next visit. Shopping websites also use them to keep your basket up to date when you flip around the goods available.
Some websites - particularly for advertising and marketing services - use cookies to track which sites you visit and to target "appropriate" advertising to you when you visit other sites that use their service. Whilst these do not usually contain your name or other identifying information, they do raise significant privacy concerns as they hold information about your browsing habits. This is akin to advertisers knowing which newspapers or magazines you read (and even which articles). In brief it's really none of their business but for some people we're not that concerned if they do know (as long as it doesn't contain our contact details).
The new EU law says that every cookie (except those used to temporarily store a shopping basket) must have explicit permission from the user before it is deployed. Previously implicit permission was considered okay (you can give them a cookie until they ask you not to). This change alters a fundamental way the web works. More confusingly it only applies to EU-based websites so other parts of the world can continue to give you cookies without asking.
This website and cookies
For my part this website only ever sent out an anonymous cookie which helped with navigation and was destroyed when you closed your browser. This cookie is now no longer deployed and indeed the only time we send out a cookie is for users who are logged into this website for the purposes of updating it. This usage is permitted under the new law but the cookie contains nothing which identfies people offline. We have had to temporarily re-enable this cookie see note above (6 Jan 2012)
further information
news
- This website will be blacked out 18 Jan 2012
-
17 Jan 2012
|
Category: General
As part of the protest against SOPA this website will be blacked out tomorrow ( 18 Jan 2012 ) GMT. Full details of why i am taking this step can be foun din my personal blog here Read on...
- Encouraging the next generation of hackers
-
19 Dec 2011
|
Category: Free software magazine
My latest article is now available at Free Software magazine. This is about the need to encourage the next generation of computer hackers (by which I mean programmers not criminals).
Read on... - New client website - Keswalls
-
12 Dec 2011
|
Category: General
I'm pleased to announce a new client website has just gone live. Keswalls are an established fishing tackle shop who have revitalised their online presence with a brand new store. Read on...
