The PC PAL site is now compliant with UK cookie Law.
You may have notice a lot of talk about cookies recently that’s because of a new EU originated law effecting how website are allowed to set cookies. The UK law allows website owners to use “implied consent” allowing their websites to function normally but alerting the user about the use of cookies.
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small file that allows a website to store information about your visit on your computer; it is mostly used to provide services to the user making their experience much more user friend. For example BBC website will let you set which town you live in for weather and local news and will remember this for a long time. This works via cookies.
What’s the problem with cookies?
The biggest problem with cookies is that it is possible to track visitor between different websites using them. You may have notice this yourself, for example have you ever done research on a topic and then found that all the websites you have visited after shows adverts for that topics. That’s cookies at work. At the very worst they can affect your privacy to a small degree but most of the free internet services like YouTube and Facebook relies on advertising to fund them.
What about PC PAL and cookies?
When PC PAL looked into cookies we were much surprized that they was not a lot of cookies being set on our website. I fact we use cookies for the following 3 reasons:
- Analytics – This allow us you see how many people visit our site and help us understand how you use our website. We then can use this information to improve your experience in the future.
- Olark live chat support – You may have notice that you can chat to someone who can help you find your way around our website. This is an additional step we have taken to ensure that all visitors get the best from our services.
- Remembering your preferences – We now use a message alerting you about cookies and opting out of them if you want. We use a cookie to remember this information for future use.
What has PC PAL done?
The first time you visit our website you will be presented with this message “By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. You can change this and find out more by following this link.” at the bottom of your screen. By clicking the link you will be able to opt out of cookies and delete the cookies which were set.
What’s happening next?
We are now happy with the system in place on the PC PAL main site. Our next step is to roll this out on all of our other sites. This will be done in the next couple of weeks.
UPDATE 07/06/2012 - The same cookie managing system is now being deployed on this blog.
If you have any questions, please contact the PC PAL HQ team on 0121 647 7340.
