“The impression I’m getting from the ICO is that even if there are complaints and you’re found not to be compliant, unless it can be shown your intent was to avoid compliance, then they would work with you,” said Mike MacAuley from the Local Government Association, which has hosted discussions on the issue.

I checked out the Number 10 website and all that I can see is that their Privacy Policy has had an update.

Its not surprising that many Government websites will not make the deadline as it’s a huge task to ‘become compliant” and many of the website within their estate are running on legacy software that would be very difficult to remove all cookies.

You can read the full article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18090118

DOWNLOAD THE PDF GUIDE or visit the ICC website

“ICC UK will update this guide on a regular basis to include further developments in the regulation of cookies and examples of best practice in complying with UK law.”

For us the most important part of the guide is this:

“These cookies [performance cookies for website improvements] only collect information about website usage for the benefit of the website operator, consent for use of these types of cookies may be obtained in any of the ways outlined earlier in this guide, for instance in the terms and conditions of the site or when the user changes the settings for the site. The method used will depend on the nature of the website, and the precise function/use of the cookies involved”

This would appear to cover off the biggest concern for website owners / managers. Add a few lines of text to your T’s & C’s and you should be ok. Again, this isn’t legal advice but it’s the route we are going to follow until we find out what other organisation are doing.

“The ICC UK guide is not a statement of the law and does not constitute legal advice. Website operators are responsible for their own compliance strategies, depending on the cookies they use and the nature of the website. ICC UK does not endorse any particular method for gaining website users’ consent.”

Useful information about the technical aspects of cookies can be found at: www.allaboutcookies.org

The new law could be enforced from May 26th 2012 and there is a large amount of discussion about what website owners can do or should do to conform.

We’ll be publishing some advice on what options are available and what other companies are doing.

(Thanks to Oliver at Silktide for a great video)

I would be interested to see if Tina’s contact manager idea went anywhere…

My hobby is Shodokan Aikido which I practice at Central London Shodokan Aikido in Holborn, London. What’s your hobby?

This is a great service for businesses and it gives students, at home parents and anyone looking for a little extra income an opportunity to write. If you love writing and please sign-up now.

Of couse if you want professional SEO or professional web design you should check out GPMD.

The third speaker should be confirmed in the next week or so. We are also looking for sponsors and guest bloggers for the online marketing blog.

Since then we’ve scheduled a Meetup and launched the new london online marketing website. Check it out.

Check out the latest Time2 blog now.