Do the people enacting this law have any idea how the web operates? Or what kind of enforcement strategy they would even use? What if the server is outside Europe but the visitor is inside? Do they know that every major browser today allows you to do this already?
Here is a humorous comment by Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding:
"In the E-Privacy Directive it is made very clear that a user can only give out his private data if there is prior consent so if there are spy cookies there must be a prior consent of the user, very clearly so. But there are also the so-called technical cookies, those which make the whole infrastructure of the internet function. Those are not concerned by this rule, just to clarify, because there were some critics that this amendment would make it impossible for the internet to function. It does not, it is a guarantee for the rights of the consumers."
Sorry Viviane, but the distinction between "technical cookies" and "spy cookies", as you refer to them, is virtually impossible to separate. For instance, we employ multivariate testing on a variety of our websites to make sure that the best combination of a webpage is shown to certain types of users. The cookies involved are clearly used for tracking purposes, but without them our pages won't even load. Not to mention that if we increase our "conversion" we are actually creating a better web experience for all of the visitors to our page.
It's like they think marketers or websites use cookies to locate and eat citizen's puppies or something. I for one would love to see a new law enacted where every politician for any government has to pass a simple IT test before they take office. Then maybe we can avoid wasting time and taxpayer dollars on idiotic things like this and focus more on the real issues facing society today.
