{"id":167842,"date":"2025-06-05T19:51:57","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T17:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spotler.com\/?post_type=blog&p=167842"},"modified":"2025-06-05T19:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T17:54:09","slug":"uk-websites-still-want-to-have-their-cookie-and-eat-it","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/spotler.com\/en-gb\/blog\/uk-websites-still-want-to-have-their-cookie-and-eat-it","title":{"rendered":"UK websites still want to have their cookie and eat it"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou must tell people if you set cookies, and clearly explain what the cookies do and why. You must also get the user\u2019s consent. Consent must be actively and clearly given.\u201d<\/strong>
– Information Commissioner\u2019s Office<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you use the internet, you\u2019ll be familiar with cookie banners, where you have to accept or decline various bits of tracking in order to find what you were looking for. There are plenty of providers and styles to choose from, but the option has to be there.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ICO (Information Commissioner\u2019s Office) is the UK body charged with enforcing the rules round data privacy, which includes cookies. As part of their 2025 strategy, they surveyed 200 of the UK\u2019s top websites by traffic volume. Of these, 134 had cookie policies which did not meet the legal requirements of PECR (the Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations).<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Which websites were surveyed?<\/h2>\n

The ICO didn\u2019t say publicly which websites it looked at, but the top 20 by traffic are pretty consistent across a number of sources.<\/p>\n

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SEMRush’s top 20 UK websites by traffic<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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SimilarWeb’s top 20 UK websites by traffic<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Four kind of issues<\/h2>\n

The problems the ICO uncovered fall into 4 categories:<\/p>\n

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1. Lack of Clarity<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n

For the next 24 hours, count how many banners you see that say something like \u201cAccept\/Reject all cookies\u201d.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t meet the \u201cclearly explain what the cookies do and why\u201d part of the guidance.<\/p>\n

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2. No actual choice<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n

One step worse than \u201cAccept\/Reject All\u201d is the cookie control that doesn\u2019t give you a choice at all.<\/p>\n

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3. Pre-ticked consent<\/h3>\n

\u201cConsent must be actively\u2026 given.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pre-ticking a box means that agreeing to cookies is no longer an active choice, so don\u2019t do this.<\/p>\n

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4. Hard to withdraw<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n

This one hadn\u2019t even occurred to me until I read the ICO\u2019s comments!<\/p>\n

Do you know how to retract your consent to cookies from any website you\u2019ve visited? If you don\u2019t, you\u2019re not alone. As in the example above, the process is explained briefly when you agree to cookies, then tucked away in the footer of the page where most people wouldn\u2019t really look. This \u201cmeets the legal requirements but isn\u2019t really transparent\u201d way of doing things is in the ICO\u2019s firing line.<\/p>\n

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What does Spotler use cookies for?<\/h2>\n

The 2 main Spotler platforms which need cookies are Spotler Leads, our website visitor tracking tool, and Spotler Activate, which uses first-party data to personalise website pages to each visitor.<\/p>\n