The tracking of online habits may become a thing of the past with a new EU law.

New EU law to minimise online behaviour monitoring.

A new law initiated by the European Union is set to change the face of online targeting; whereby websites gather information about web users in order to show specific online advertisements.

This new law sets guidelines for web monitoring, specifically it enforces a requirement to obtain explicit consent prior to monitoring a persons’ activity.

As this will be implemented on the 25th May, online businesses are already being urged to implement new strategies to gain consent from online customers.

Coming into force within two months, this initiative is called the European e-Privacy directive and it insists that explicit informed consent is obtain from web users before cookies gather information.

EU Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham,  said that for the the first few months there will be a grace period allowing businesses the time to make the necessary arrangements. This may be a lengthy and expensive process as businesses will need to consider and then invest in new ways to target web users.

He added, “I cannot bark at the industry at the moment because I have not got the regulations.”

This new regulation should make browsing a more enjoyable experience but on the downside it may also mean that web speed could be reduced. This is because cookies remember data from frequently visited web sites, in order to make them load more quickly; so without cookies pages will take a lot longer to load.

This will be made worse by that fact that less cookies will mean more pop-ups; as pop-ups will now be needed to obtain permission to collect data.

…and that’s the way the cookie crumbles.