Web software firm goads ICO over cookie law

Cookies

A web developer has urged the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to take action against it for deliberately defying the EU cookie law.

Silktide described the new law, which came into force in May this year, as a "stupefying waste of time".

The law requires websites to disclose what cookies they use and asks users to consent to accepting them.

In response, Silktide created NoCookieLaw.com, a website where it suggests the ICO should prosecute them for disregarding the law.

"We've taken all our cookies solutions off all our websites. The evil cookies are back, and the pointless slidey warning messages are no more," the site states.

"We tried. We even wrote an open source solution to the cookie law used by 5,000 sites. But the truth is, it's a tragic waste of time."

The company was quick to give the ICO some advice on how to address the firm's law breaking.

"Please, please do your worst. Send in a team of balaclava-clad ninjas in black hawk helicopters to tickle us to death with feather dusters. Just do something," the site asked.

The site also contains a link to a complaint form, so that visitors can report the company over its alleged law-breaking.

If the ICO choose to take action against the site, it could levy a fine of up to 500,000 against the company. At the time of writing, no such complaint had been made to the ICO.

An ICO spokesperson told IT Pro the organisation welcomed Silktide's attempts to draw attention to the cookie issue.

"A key part of our work [is] ensuring compliance with the cookie law [and] making businesses aware of the regulations," the spokesperson said.

"Individuals can raise their concerns about how organisations have implemented the cookies legislation through our website, and we'll look at the content of every website reported to us.

"The NoCookieLaw website will feature in that review, and we'll report on our findings in November," he added.

Rene Millman

Rene Millman is a freelance writer and broadcaster who covers cybersecurity, AI, IoT, and the cloud. He also works as a contributing analyst at GigaOm and has previously worked as an analyst for Gartner covering the infrastructure market. He has made numerous television appearances to give his views and expertise on technology trends and companies that affect and shape our lives. You can follow Rene Millman on Twitter.