“The UK data watchdog has admitted it doesn’t have any staff investigating cookie consent complaints, more than a year after the law came in via an EU directive. The regulation requires websites to ask before dropping cookies and other tracking devices onto users’ computers, and came into law in May 2011. “

EC veep jumps gun on net privacy law
No statement on withdrawn statement

The vice-president of the European Commission has withdrawn a rather extensive statement on cookies and the EU Data Protection Directive sent out last week “without authorisation”.

The bone of contention is in the interpretation of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive, or e-Privacy Directive – a continuation of the Data Protection Directive – which says that firms can only store and use the information on computers “on condition that the subscriber or user concerned is provided with clear and comprehensive information… about the purposes of the processing, and is offered the right to refuse such processing by the data controller”, with one exception:

This shall not prevent any technical storage or access for the sole purpose of carrying out or facilitating the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network, or as strictly necessary in order to provide an information society service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user.