The ICO has published guidance to assist institutions in meeting new EU cookie compliance regulations. They have advised website owners to find other methods of obtaining consent, rather than simply relying on browser settings.
'At present, most browser settings are not sophisticated enough to allow you to assume that the user has given their consent to allow your website to set a cookie’ the ICO stated. Indeed, from 25 May 2011, changes to existing EU legislation mean that ‘explicit consent’ must be sought from website owners before they track the online behaviours of their users with ‘cookie’ files (small text files downloaded to your PC when you visit websites).
FE and HE institutions are subject to the new rules and will be required to obtain consent from wesbite visitors before storing and retrieving information from users’ computers.
More details on this news story is available from the OUT-LAW website.
The ICO guide is available from their website.