Interesting site. I wonder whether the GDS team have any thoughts on how to reconcile some of this advice, and indeed their own site, with the EU cookie rules?
It seems the GDS also has a document floating around[1] that talks about implementing the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations on public sector web sites. This in turn cites ICO guidance[2] that says the Information Commissioner is "unlikely to prioritise" regulatory action against sites for using first party analytical cookies.
On the other hand, there is nothing in the actual Regulations to exempt analytics as far as I can see, and that same ICO guidance quite clearly states that "A first party analytic cookie might not appear to be as intrusive as others that might track a user across multiple sites but you still need consent". Moreover, using a service like Google Analytics, which relies on third party cookies and tracks users across sites, seems to have been squarely in the crosshairs of the EU authorities when they wrote the Regulations.
I'll be the first to agree that the current rules are not the most helpful idea I've ever encountered, and I'm about as convinced by the mess at the top of the ICO's own web site as anyone else, apparently including the webmasters of just about every other UK government web site. Still, as long as the Regulations have the force of the law and as long as the moratorium on regulatory action is due to end soon, it seems odd that the GDS is advocating the use of tools like Google Analytics.
It seems the GDS also has a document floating around[1] that talks about implementing the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations on public sector web sites. This in turn cites ICO guidance[2] that says the Information Commissioner is "unlikely to prioritise" regulatory action against sites for using first party analytical cookies.
On the other hand, there is nothing in the actual Regulations to exempt analytics as far as I can see, and that same ICO guidance quite clearly states that "A first party analytic cookie might not appear to be as intrusive as others that might track a user across multiple sites but you still need consent". Moreover, using a service like Google Analytics, which relies on third party cookies and tracks users across sites, seems to have been squarely in the crosshairs of the EU authorities when they wrote the Regulations.
I'll be the first to agree that the current rules are not the most helpful idea I've ever encountered, and I'm about as convinced by the mess at the top of the ICO's own web site as anyone else, apparently including the webmasters of just about every other UK government web site. Still, as long as the Regulations have the force of the law and as long as the moratorium on regulatory action is due to end soon, it seems odd that the GDS is advocating the use of tools like Google Analytics.
[1] http://alphagov.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/gds-cookies-impl...
[2] http://www.ico.gov.uk/news/latest_news/2011/~/media/document...