Complying with EU Cookie Law
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Hi, Could you please let me know how to comply with EU Cookie Law for my websites?
Thank you.
Best wishes
AsithaThe blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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The following is from our legal team:
We’re aware of the recent EU privacy directive and the related UK Cookie Law. As of now, the relevant authorities haven’t issued concrete guidance on the actions that are necessary to comply with the law. We’ll be watching as the situation develops and may make changes to our services in the future, if required.
For now – since sites hosted at WordPress.com do make use of cookies, you may like to flag this fact for visitors to your site. One way to do this is to add a text widget to your side bar and include a link to our privacy policy (which contains information on the cookies that we use). You might also inform your visitors that they can refuse all cookies by changing the settings of their browsers.
Our Privacy Policy can be found here:
Instructions for adding a text widget to your site can be found here:
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Hi, Many thanks for the quick reply.
It seems for the time being I need not worry. My understanding is that this cookie law is more relevant to websites that make some sort of sales (or financial transactions) and mine doesn’t do any sales.
If you introduce something in the future for cookie compliance, how would you announce that, please? A message on the ‘WP Admin’?
Thanks.
Regards, Asitha -
Frankly I don’t know so I tagged this thread for a Staff response. Please subscribe to it so you are notified when they respond. To subscribe look in the sidebar of this thread, find the subscribe to topics link and click it.
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Hello,
I don’t think this law affects e-commerce websites only, it affects ALL websites. As soon as you land on any website a banner should come up stating that the website is using cookies and the user should be able to click on ‘Accept’ or not. Also, the user should be able to access a clear cookie policy stating which cookies the website is using.The problem is that – at the moment – wordpress.com does not allow us to install plugins (so no banner) which is why, technically we’re not compliant with the the new law.
I do hope WordPress will soon solve this: I have already seen people migrating away from the platform, which I really wouldn’t want to do. Of course I don’t want to pay fines either, however.
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Read the timethief’s message:
Frankly I don’t know so I tagged this thread for a Staff response. Please subscribe to it so you are notified when they respond. To subscribe look in the sidebar of this thread, find the subscribe to topics link and click it.
Every time someone posts a message, the thread moves up. And as Staff members respond in order, I advise you to be patient and not to post messages.
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Hi there, Many thanks for all the replies. I am a big fan of WordPress, which is brilliant for someone not-so-techie, like me.
I thought of placing a text widget with the following content:
Cookies Notice
Please note that this website uses cookies. You can find more information on the cookies used from here: http://automattic.com/privacy/
By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to the placement of cookies on your computer.
Alternatively, you can refuse all cookies by changing the settings of your browsers.I hope this is ok. Please alert me if this isn’t. Such help would be much appreciated.
I am subscribed to this thread and earnestly look forward to receiving a staff response.Thank you.
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I am subscribed to this thread and earnestly look forward to receiving a staff response.
Yep, but
Every time someone posts a message, the thread moves up. And as Staff members respond in order, I advise you to be patient and not to post messages.
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/complying-with-eu-cookie-law?replies=8#post-2387507
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Hi everyone, The advice TimeThief shared earlier is the most up to date information we have on this issue.
We’re aware of the recent EU privacy directive and the related UK Cookie Law. As of now, the relevant authorities haven’t issued concrete guidance on the actions that are necessary to comply with the law. We’ll be watching as the situation develops and may make changes to our services in the future, if required.
For now – since sites hosted at WordPress.com do make use of cookies, you may like to flag this fact for visitors to your site. One way to do this is to add a text widget to your side bar and include a link to our privacy policy (which contains information on the cookies that we use). You might also inform your visitors that they can refuse all cookies by changing the settings of their browsers.
Our Privacy Policy can be found here:
Instructions for adding a text widget to your site can be found here:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/text-widget/I’ve made note of your concerns and will update you if there are any changes.
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..ehm.. I’m glad you guys are making notes, but the law is going to be effective on June, 2nd. Which is next week, btw.
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wouldn’t be easier to integrate this plugin ? https://wordpress.org/plugins/cookie-law-info/
So everyone will just be fine with the law.
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This reminds me of the discussion we had last year when the Canadian anti-spam law came into effect. I’m not in the legal profession, but I think the same principle would apply here: We are not in control of technical aspects of our sites, like cookies. Our websites themselves don’t set the cookies, but WordPress.com does, and all our sites are merely subdomains of WordPress.com, even if you have your site mapped to a custom domain. Consequently, I wouldn’t think we can be held liable in any legal case arising from this particular issue, as something completely out of your control cannot possibly be your fault.
If anyone is not complying with the law by not giving an option to opt out of cookies (which, frankly, is impossible to prosecute if actual guidelines haven’t been issued yet), it is WordPress.com, not individual bloggers, as individual bloggers simply don’t have the ability to add such an option.
Just make sure you very clearly state in your privacy policy that it’s WordPress.com, not you, setting the cookies, and that you have no control over this, and refer people to the Automattic privacy policy as has been said above.
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Hi, thanks for the advice and comments. How can I integrate this plug-in to my wordpress.com site?
https://wordpress.org/plugins/cookie-law-info/I cannot find this directory ‘/wp-content/plugins/ directory’, which is given under ‘Installation’ instructions on https://wordpress.org/plugins/cookie-law-info/installation/
Hope someone could kindly help, please. Many thanks…
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How can I integrate this plug-in to my wordpress.com site?
You can’t – no Plugin’s allowed on WordPress.COM blogs – security and reliability issues
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Thanks kokkieh and auxclass.
Can I migrate to WordPress.ORG then and use that plug-in, which seems to be a more sound solution to this Cookie issue?
By the way, what is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org? I am a bit confused about this. Thanks in advance for a reply… -
By the way, what is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org? I am a bit confused about this.
See here:
https://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/and here:
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I use the text widget and link to privacy policy as noted above – theory being that WordPress.COM having many many blogs all around the world will figure out how not to get in trouble with the EU
Privacy Policy and Cookies You can also disable tracking cookies in your browser
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