I was on Radio 4 today talking about how the government is proposing to implement the EU directive that covers the use of cookies. Given that the interview was less than 5 minutes (including a privacy advocate giving the counter arguments) I thought I would write up the rest as I had done extensive research into the current state of cookie privacy and what is being done to protect users

The first point I would make is that a large percentage of users if asked would say they want more protection, but the reality is that in practise they want free content and a uninterrupted browsing experience. A early(ish) version of Internet Explorer used to ask you the very first time that either 1st party or 3rd party cookie was going to be set by a browser, what happened to it? they removed it because users found it annoying. 

With 100's of millions of pounds being invested into browsers you know that if users demanded better protection they would get it - so although advances have been made by all the major players (Microsoft, Firefox, Safari - but surprisingly not Google) into things like the 'Do Not Track' headers these are still hidden away from the user (In Firefox for example you need to dive into the 'advanced' tab to find it). 

In advanced of the interview today I got a short briefing on how the government was going to implement the EU proposals. This is the section that worried me - 

"The Government will adopt the amended Framework exactly as set out and will not ‘gold-plate’ the regulations by adding any additional measures, to ensure British firms can compete equally with the rest of Europe."

As a founder of a web company - I don't frankly care about the rest of europe I care about being competitive with the rest of the world and more specifically the US and silicon valley. If your read the full press release you really do not come aware with any real assurance that the consultation will still not result in something that is detrimental to our being able to compete on the same level as in the US. 

I think the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) has done a good job in pre-empting much of this and has created a number of awareness sites for users who are worried about behavioural tracking and allowing them to opt-out of sites. And it also has reasonable recommendations on the approach on how users should be informed of cookie usage. 

The result of todays announcements will likely mean two things 1) That the government will make a song and dance about collaboration with browser makers which will result in very little change 2) That adverts may get a standard icon that will need to be included that links to information about the data the advert is collecting.