On 26th of May, new legislation on internet cookies came into force, alongside new increased fines and powers for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Until now, brands only had to tell their users that they may be storing information about them. However, following the new Europe-wide legislation, companies must obtain opt-in consent to store, retrieve and use information from users’ visits to their websites and/or how they respond to emails.

Although it is a well-intentioned piece of legislation, it presents something of a technical nightmare. Work is being done with the browser companies to develop a technical solution to the opt-in problem, but they are far from ready. Recognising that there are real implementation issues, the ICO has set a deadline of May 2012 before they start to enforce the new legislation.

When it comes to mobile, the situation is even more complex. On the web browsing side of mobile, much the same issues apply as to the PC internet. However, given the wide range of operating systems on mobile there are many more web browsers on these devices. At this stage, without a list of browser providers, we cannot be sure that the technology will be implemented by everyone.

Although this has been called the ‘Cookies Law’, it actually covers any storage and retrieval of customer data over an internet connection. Personal information stored in apps will therefore also come under the new legislation. This is a much greater technological headache, as there are many developers producing apps for brands and no standard way of storing data. Similarly the hybrid web-apps or HTML5 apps will also be subject to the new requirements under the legislation.

This news comes from the Direct Marketing Association and the website www.b2balliance.info which brings together best practice guidelines and other key information on a range of B2B Marketing & Communication topics from a powerful alliance of specialist trade organisations.