The main point, for me, in purely practical terms, is that ‘Dave’ Evans, one of the bureaucrats in charge of this mess at the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) categorically states in his (deeply patronising) official video (link below) that he can’t envisage the ICO ever enforcing a financial penalty, because the first stage in enforcement (following a complaint) would be to discuss with the website owners what their plan is to achieve compliance and agree a way forward.
http://www.ico.gov.uk/news/blog/2012/updated-ico-advice-guidance-e-privacy-directive-eu-cookie-law.aspx
In practical terms, this means it’s realistic to do nothing, nothing at all, other than maybe tidy up the Privacy Policy page that no one ever looks at. That is all I have done, with the agreement of my clients: made sure we explain in general terms what cookies are used, and provided a link to the Google Analytics Cookie page. If the ICO get in touch - and I doubt that will happen - we have made a basic start and can then take it from there.
If I understand correctly, there are 27 countries in Europe and only three, including UK, have done anything about complying with this misguided legislation. More fool us! Of all the important things a government can spend time on during these troubled times, they choose to waste time and money on this! The chap in the video has spent EIGHTEEN MONTHS coming up with virtually nothing, him and a small army of nine-to-fivers, no doubt.
I believe putting a permission pop up on a small business website will come to be seen as weak, spineless behaviour - bowing down in the face of bad law and faceless, pointless, unelected bureaucracy. The real motives of the mysterious bureaucrats who started all this are far from clear. It will irritate hundreds of millions of people, for no clear benefit. And what will they come up with next, if they get away with this?
The lunatics are taking over the asylum and the way to stop them is to not cooperate in letting them do it.
We have to IGNORE this stupid thing to make it go away! That seems to be - rather subtly - what even the government department in charge of it is quietly doing. Let’s not spoil it by putting silly little pop ups everywhere.
Paul