Cookies may get a selection box

NEWS UK website users may have to tick a box to accept or refuse cookies every time they click to a new page, as regulators try to tighten up the rules on internet tracking. The Information Commissioner's office has stated unauthorised use of the online tracking devices could go against UK data protection legislation, in line with European Parliament proposals. However, in December, the European Telecommunication Council turned over the European Parliament's decision for an opt-in scheme, making it opt-out again - meaning users across the rest of Europe will not be warned they are about to be 'cookied'. Danny Meadows-Klue, chairman of the UK Interactive Advertising Bureau, said: "The European Parliament has had to realise its opt-in idea was technically impossible, economically catastrophic for the advertising industry and unbelievably aggravating for users." EU member states also voted in favour of opt-out cookies in December. Meadows-Klue said: "Definitions of what are meant by the terms opt-in and opt-out will be key now, as they are ambiguous." On 29 January the Council of Ministers will adopt the common position of opt-out without debate. In three months the entire directive - including spam and electronic data storage proposals - will return to the European Parliament for a second reading.