This way for cookies!
You may have noticed a new addition to Mama.ie tonight, in the form of an little pop-up in the corner asking you to accept cookies on this site. Don’t freak out! 🙂 Mama.ie is not suddenly trying to do something unusual or strange on your computer. This is my response to a new EU law that says that all website owners in the EU must inform visitors when they set cookies on their site. That law came into effect yesterday, so here I am today trying to figure out how best to address it!
So when does Mama.ie set cookies? Well, as I use WordPress and its wonderful plugins, a lot of the technical stuff happens in the background, without me ever having to understand it completely. But to the best of my knowledge, there are three main types of cookies set on this site:
- Analytical:
Plugins such as Google Analytics and WordPress Jetpack set cookies for you when you visit Mama.ie to allow me to track visitor statistics for this site. These cookies expire when you close your browser. These plugins help me to see which pages get visits most often, and can help me determine what visitors to the site like to read, and what they don’t. Sometimes this influences what I write about and if something seems particularly interesting to people, I may write about it again. -
Advertorial:
Mama.ie includes Advertising from Google Adsense, as well as affiliate advertising programmes like Amazon and Tradedoubler. These cookies track when you follow a link from Mama.ie to my affiliate partner, and if you make a purchase on the affiliate site while the cookie is set, Mama.ie earns a small commission. Given that these affiliate and advertising programmes have yet to show any great return, I think it’s safe to say that these cookies don’t affect most of you!! -
Social:
Each blog post on Mama.ie includes buttons that allow you to share content via Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and a number of other social networks. The plugins that provide these buttons use cookies to ensure that you do not need to re-login to each social network every time you wish to use it on Mama.ie. These are the plugins that help you share any posts that you particularly like. Unless you don’t mind entering your details each time you visit the site, cookies from these plugins really make browsing the site a lot easier.
To allow cookies to be set on Mama.ie, and ensure your experience this site functioning at its optimal settings, simply click the “I am happy with this button” in the Cookie Control pop-up in the bottom left-hand corner of the site. (If you can’t see the pop-up, just click the orange triangle, and it will reappear.)
If you do not wish to allow cookies to be set, ignore the pop-up!
All of this information is detailed in my shiny new Privacy Policy, if you’re interested!
PS – As I learn more about this Cookie directive and dealing with it in the next few days and weeks, I may well change the approach to informing you about cookies on this site – so don’t be surprised if the current pop-up is replaced by something else in the next little while!
That has to be the most ridiculous law I have ever seen.
The “law” should be more like this:
If you are using the Internet you are agreeing to allow cookies. Just like everyone has been doing for the last 20 years.
Otherwise please go away and don’t use the internet any more.
Totally agree Anthony. I think it will just cause people to panic and think they’re permitting something bad on their computers because they just won’t know what cookies are.
Not happy with my current solution though. It’s asking me to reconfirm on every single page I visit. I want it to ask once on the whole site. Will have to do some more research once the sun goes down today. ( No way am I missing out on the rare sunshine to look into this!!)