Ed Vaizey angers privacy groups over comments about cookie law

An astonishing reinterpretation of a revised privacy law by Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has angered privacy groups.

In an open letter to businesses published earlier this week, Vaizey said that companies should not be forced to obtain consent before downloading cookies onto people's PCs.

He said that the word "prior" does not appear in Article 5(3) of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), the clause dealing with cookies.

Vaizey said in the letter this meant that "there is no indication in the definition as to when that consent may be given, and so it is possible that consent may be given after or during processing".

The Information Commissioner's Office has now given companies and organisations 12 months in which to comply with the amendments to PECR.

We contacted Alex Hanff of Privacy International after the letter had disappeared from the web and he said Vaizey's interpretation was a "total farce".

Although the letter is now available online again after we contacted the Department for Culture Media and Sport, the privacy activist told Computeractive that: "Vaizey is putting two fingers up at the law. He has interfered with the work of the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office) by getting it to delay implementation of the law."

Hanff went on to say that next week he will file a Freedom of Information request to find out what has been discussed at meetings Vaizey has held with browser developers, other companies and advertisers.

He will also file three complaints with the European Commission for "for conspiring to bypass European Directives, inciting business to ignore UK law and interfering with an independent regulator."

Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group said Vaizey's comments showed that the Government was siding with advertisers by saying it wasn't always "practical to obtain consent before processing".