About the Use of Cookies on Websites

Cookies are used for a variety of purposes by most websites, most commonly for:

  • Analytics – to track and collect statistics about which pages are visited, the duration of the visit, return visits etc
  • remembering visitor preferences and personalise pages
  • content management system login verification for users and commenters
  • managing shopping carts and shopping preferences on ecommerce websites
  • for tracking and analysing the number of people responding to targeted advertising

About the EU Cookie Law

A EU Cookie Law came into effect on 26th May 2011, which applies to the use of cookies and in particular is concerned with the issue of implied consent. It will mean that owners of websites have to make changes to their sites to comply. This amended privacy legislation requires websites to be set up in a way that allows for obtaining informed consent from a visitor, before they can store or retrieve information on a computer or device connected to the internet.

The Information Commissioner’s Office is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.

Learn more about ‘Information Rights’ and ‘Cookies’, visit:

ICO – Data Protection and Freedom of Advice – ico.org.uk

Cookies and similar technologies