The Cookie Crumble
May Day, May Day!
The EU Privacy and Communications Act will be enforced in the UK this month, requiring every website owner to gain consent from users to use cookies that collect data on them.
The need for consumer facing consent kicks into action on 26th May 2012. Consumers will have the right to ‘transparency and control’ over their data. Cookies are used for behavioural advertising, they track a variety of things including monitoring which sites are visited and which adverts are clicked. Others store and report back on preferences and favourites on different sites.
Consumers, for the most part, are unlikely to know what a cookie does and how it works but they are gaining a greater understanding – and sometimes a negative perception, of how data is collected on them and used online.
Martin Hoskins, head of data protection at Everything Everywhere and former chairman of the Data Protection Forum warns all brands on the need to be increasingly careful about the way they use cookies. “All major brands fear the consequences of damage to their reputation if they are perceived as not listening either to their customers or to the regulator,” he says. “As more brands develop strategies that meet the new requirements, increasing attention will focus on those who don’t.”
This article was written by Marketing Week Live Blogger
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