Welcome back! Thank you for all you lovely comments and feedback about my write up so far of The Big eCommerce Conference. The next seminar was delivered by Suzanne Dibble, who I know from Twitter (@law4mumprenuers). With the brand new Cookie Law coming in to play a couple of days before the conference Suzanne was keen to teach us what this meant to our websites. For those that think the only cookie is filled with chocolate chips, Suzanne explained what internet cookies are and what they do. Cookies store data of website users, which is done in the background without us knowing and tracks users habits on various websites. I reguarly delete my cookie history on my own laptop and advise you all to do so too, as too many cookies from the internet has a similar affect as real cookies, it makes your system sluggish and slow!
With the new EU law coming into play here in the UK this month we now all need to make sure we are compliant. However at the eleventh hour the directive shifted the goalposts as there were concerns that the new cookie law would affect an already struggling British economy. So should we all be rushing to ensure we have a cookie policy on our websites? A question that remains unanswered however Suzanne advised that we should all try to comply with the new laws. Therefore you will need an opt-in consent form for all users of your website. Businesses can get a cookie policy widget from www.heartinternet.co.uk/eu-cookie-law.html and there is also a Wordpress plugin available for cookie consent, I am yet to find one, but will let you know when I get a moment to look!
Another point raised by Suzanne whilst discussing cookie law was the need for websites to have a privacy policy. The cookie policy can be an extension of your privacy policy. As a blogger I am not yet sure how this all affects me and I assure you I am investigating this and when I know I will update you, incase as bloggers we need to take action.
Pinterest is still a hot topic for debate with regards to copyright law and I am not even going to try and tackle this hot potato as so many other bloggers have dealt with it so well. At the end of the day you need to decide about using Pinterest, but I urge you all to pin carefully and wisely, ensuring the links you pin from are the original image source. If you do not want people to pin from your blog or website there is a code available to block pinners.
Suzanne then moved onto explain that Twitter, Facebook and Blogs all come under the CAP Code, the Committee of Advertising Practice. All advertising must be legal, decent, honest and truthful. You can sign up for email updates regarding the CAP code here. Continuing the seminar we were reminded that all email marketing should be done with opt in boxes, to ensure we were gaining peoples permission to send regular email newsletters or campaigns and that as direct sellers we must ensure we have a 7 day cooling off period period.
The internet is so huge that measuring and ensuring compliance to the numerous laws is a huge undertaking and we all know that there will always be somebody avoiding compliance. However I think it is important as responsible business owners that we should make sure our own affairs are in order and legal to avoid future reprimands that could affect our businesses dramatically.
What are your thoughts? I know as small businesses we have so many hats to wear and law is probably the most complicated. Suzanne's website can be found at www.lawyers4mumprenuers.com if you would like some help with understanding the legal minefield.
I will be back tomorrow with more ideas and information from the conference as well as some fabulous finds to commemorate The Queens Diamond Jubilee.
Have a wonderful afternoon,
Zoe
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1 comment:
Thanks again for an informative post Zoe! It is all quite a lot to keep track of, but being responsible does mean trying to uderstand and keep up. I'll have a look at my privacy policy again to see what is says about cookies : )
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