The reason for this looming assault on user accessibility is the persistent abuse by many companies of behavioural targeting and advertising cookies, which in recent years has begun to spiral out of control. As a result, in May this year, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) announced plans to implement legislation that would have a massive impact on all online businesses in the UK. The new EU cookie laws would effectively force all UK sites to obtain the “informed consent” of their users before they could legally collect any form of personal data. The implications of failing to comply would be enormous; businesses would risk fines of up to £500,000, as well as equally costly damage to their reputations.

Alarmed by the lack of preparedness of British industry, the government managed to negotiate a 12-month “lead-in period” to give UK businesses time to adapt to the new cookie laws. We’re now midway through that period, and the information commissioner – the guy who’ll have to enforce the new rules – has just issued a half-term report on how things are progressing. Unsurprisingly, his verdict “can be summed up by the schoolteacher’s favourite clichés: ‘could do better’ and ‘must try harder’. A report that listed the URLs of sites that were perfectly compliant from day one would be very short indeed. This is not a surprise to anyone who recognises that redeveloping and redesigning websites is no easy task”.

With the impending deadline now on 24th May 2012, the lack of clarity about the cookie laws is disconcerting to say the least. The ICO’s own website (www.ico.gov.uk) witnessed a dramatic 90% drop in visitor numbers after the EU cookie laws were implemented, which demonstrates just how damaging the new legislation could prove to be. Furthermore, if the new cookie laws are not understood and implemented correctly, they could also have an extremely detrimental effect on the UK economy if governing bodies such as the ICO begin imposing tough financial penalties on companies that are in breach of the regulations.

Many were expecting (and hoping for) a legal loophole of some kind to exploit, but the regulations proposed will be more stringent than ever imagined. If every site followed the cookie laws set out in the ICO’s lengthy document and had to gain the informed consent of all users before setting any cookies, collecting personal data would be the least of its problems; attracting visitors and retaining customers – already a major challenge – would become virtually impossible.

This shift towards safeguarding the privacy of consumers is a global phenomenon with, it seems, unstoppable momentum, so working towards full compliance with the EU cookie laws will not only prevent websites from incurring potentially crippling financial penalties, but will also go a long way towards helping to establish enduring, trusted relationships between online businesses and their customers. Organisations need to find the right balance between enticing visitors to their website and remaining compliant with the various rules and regulations set out in the pending EU cookie laws.

The ICO’s own website provides a good starting point for website operators to understand exactly what personal data and cookies they’re collecting from, or storing on, customers’ devices. Once this has been established, site operators will be in a position to determine whether the personal data they’re collecting is essential to the business, and will be able to filter out any data that could be construed as being intrusive to their customers’ privacy. This approach to data collection would enable website operators to create a detailed plan for obtaining informed consent to collect the data that they believe is fundamental to the business, and identifying the areas where data collection may not be as important.

The next step along the road to compliance is to ensure that visitors to the website are aware of what personal data is being obtained, and why the data is being collected. However, as evidenced by the dramatic drop in visitor numbers experienced by the ICO’s own site, it’s crucial that users are not made to feel alienated by plastering the site with warning notices, or bombarding them with endless requests to opt in to, or allow, every minor feature on the website. Typically, the purpose of this data collection is to enhance the visitor’s experience while browsing the website, such as providing relevant content or offering a free service. Once this has been explained, it should’t prove to be too difficult to convince them that the site isn’t attempting to exploit their privacy, and as a result they’ll probably agree to the collection and usage of certain data.

A random survey of some prominent websites reveals that their owners haven’t yet appreciated what the new cookie laws require. Most information about cookies is buried in a privacy policy page and explains that the company makes use of cookies before going on to say that if the user declines to accept cookies, the company “cannot guarantee that your experience with the site will be as quick or responsive as if you do accept cookies”. If this is what the vast majority of British companies regard as seeking the informed consent of users, then they have a nasty shock coming. And the information commissioner is going to be busy enforcing cookie laws from next June onwards.

These gorgeous media format icons are perfect for modern-style websites that offer digital files for download in a variety of formats. The delicious colours were specifically chosen to compliment almost any Web 2.0 property, and the bold white lines of the various icon designs perfectly compliment the subtle textures and lighting effects of the icon backgrounds.

The Media Format Icons pack consists of seven different icon designs (Book on Demand, PDF Version, eBook, iPad App, Android App, Print Version and Enterprise Edition) on six different 2D and 3D backgrounds, giving 42 icons in total.

Included in the Media Format Icons pack is a well organised PSD file to enable you to easily edit all colours, shadows and lighting effects. Virtually every lighting effect is on a separate layer, giving you complete control over the look and feel of every icon.

Adobe Photoshop is required in order to edit the PSD file, but if you don’t own a copy or would like us to make the changes for you, please contact us for a quote.

Price: $5

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HelpAReporter.com (HARO) is one of the best tools online for getting free press and publicity. The service has almost single-handedly landed people and businesses in such prestigious publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Forbes, and over 30,000 members of the media have quoted HARO sources in their reports and articles. Impressive stuff indeed.

So what exactly is HARO? Well, some people call it a free press or social news network, but essentially it’s a (very large) mailing list that connects reporters, writers and bloggers to news sources and small businesses and enables them to tell their stories, promote their brands and sell their products and services. HARO serves as a vital social networking resource for reporters, news sources and advertisers, and best of all it’s completely free to join (although they do offer enhanced paid-for packages).

Once you’ve signed up, HARO will send you up to three emails a day, each one containing up to 10 news enquiries (otherwise known as free press opportunities). You can then respond to any enquiries that are related to your particular market, niche or area of expertise. So if a reporter is working on a story about online business owners who’ve left their boring day jobs to start an online business, they’ll broadcast some information on HARO about the types of people they’d like to interview. If you feel that you’d be a good fit for the story, you’d email those reporters directly and tell them about yourself or your business. If they use your story in their article or blog post, expect an avalanche of traffic to your website.

This free press service actually started out as a group on Facebook called “If I can help a reporter out, I will.” However, it rapidly became so popular that the owner (Peter Shankman) decided to start sending out the enquires by email. Over 100,000 members are now receiving free press coverage as a result of the service, so do yourself a favour and get involved.

Quite simply, HARO is one of the best ways to get connected with reporters, writers and bloggers who are actively seeking your insights and input for media stories. This is hands down one of the best ways to get some free press coverage for you and your business.

You can sign up for free at www.helpareporter.com/subscriptions, and you can follow HARO’s PR enquiries on Twitter at www.twitter.com/helpareporter.

If you’ve got some cash to spare, you could also sponsor an ad in the HARO newsletter, which goes out to over 100,000 subscribers.

Keep your eyes peeled for some upcoming tips for making the most of HARO’s free press services.

Over the years our clients have come to expect nothing less than world-class customer service and support, and we plan to make it even easier for you to get the assistance you need by integrating a cutting-edge live help facility into our client portal. Our friendly and knowledgeable support team will be available during normal office hours to answer any pre-sales questions and technical queries you may have.

We hope you like the new website as much as we do. We have worked hard to ensure that Ignition Code not only looks good, but is also accessible to everyone and has all the features you need to manage your online business as effectively as possible. We aim to please all of our clients all of the time, so if you have any suggestions as to how we could improve the new website even further, please contact us and let us know.