New EU Regulations for Cookies

From May 26th 2012, any web site that uses Cookies, or similar tracking devices, needs to comply with the new regulations. Unless a cookie is deemed essential to the operation of the website (for example, as part of a shopping cart to track purchases), the website must obtain specific permission from the user in order to place a cookie on their machine.

Having reviewed the requirements, we have concluded that the session cookies we use for the operation of the sites are essential. As a result, we will be adding a banner at the top of CPWeb and PDD pages to explain this, with a link to additional information.

Tracking cookies, such as Google Analytics and similar programmes, are definitely considered within scope. If you are using these on your own web site, then you will have had to obtain permission already before passing the user to our site to make payment or complete a mandate. If you have set-up Affiliate Tracking on our systems, you will need to implement a new POSTed parameter when you pass the user to our page indicating whether the user has granted permission for you to use cookies or other tracking devices.

(Note - this applies only to CPWeb and PDD where the user is redirected to our page – CPWeb Direct, I-frame, and PDD Direct do not use cookies and are not affected)

The parameter required is named ‘cookiesaccepted’ and acceptable values are ‘Y’, ‘N’, or blank.

If you pass ‘Y’ then the affiliate tracking will operate as currently.

However, if you do not pass the parameter, we will assume no permission has been gained. Also, if you pass ‘N’ or blank we will assume the user has declined the use of cookies. In these cases, we will continue the payment process as normal, but we will not include the affiliate tracker you have set up.

Please note that if you are using templates, and you have embedded any form of tracking or cookie within the template, then you need to ensure that you have the necessary permissions from the user before you pass them to our system. We will be issuing a new standard stylesheet shortly that will include the notification banner and you should incorporate this into any custom stylesheet you may be using.

Although the law becomes effective on 26th May, we are aware that you may need to make changes to your systems to accommodate the above. We will be making the functionality available on the demo system shortly, and you will receive an email update when this is available. We anticipate making the changes on the live system two weeks after the demo system is made available, and a further notification will be sent prior to that date.

The link for more information will display the following statement in a new window: