A last minute change in Europe’s so-called ‘cookie law’ has had an immediate impact on the privacy policies of recruitment websites.
A cookie is a piece of data that is placed on a user’s computer when they visit a website. Some cookies can be used to track what users do online, raising issues of privacy.
Under the ‘cookie law’ (the EU e-Privacy Directive) that came into force in the UK on 26 May, it was expected that users of recruitment websites would have been required to give their consent to that site’s use of cookies. Owners of websites that failed to comply faced a potential fine of up to £500k.
However, in revised guidance issued by the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) website owners can assume that by using a website, users have consented to that site’s use of cookies. One such note on the Guardian Jobs website tells readers: “By using the sites you are agreeing to the use of cookies as described.”
Mark Rhodes, marketing director of reed.co.uk, told Recruiter that their website now included a similar message on its home page: “The message doesn’t appear on any other pages and once the user has seen it once they will never see it again, even if they return in a week’s time.”
Users who click on the message are directed to a webpage, which explains what cookies reed.co.uk uses and why. They also have the option of not accepting cookies, explained Rhodes.
• On recruitment websites, cookies are commonly used to tailor information to users, based on their past behaviour, such as type of job searched for. Recruitment websites also often use cookies from websites, such as Facebook, to deliver relevant jobs, for example. In some cases they can track what an individual does online, raising issues of privacy.
