[Fletch137]

It seems that the bigger companies (BBC, Amazon, etc.) have just gotten away with having a link to their cookies policy in the footer, while the smaller guys (e.g. the web dev place I work at) have been scared into placing often intrusive JS notifications that grab the user's attention needlessly.

If the average user were to even understand what cookies were, I could see at least some reasoning behind the law, but as it stands, it's like having a prompt at the petrol pump that asks you if you consent to something in your fuel that's there to help your engine - most people don't know about it and don't want to be bothered being asked the question in the first place.

[davedx]

The BBC had an annoying popup banner thing.

[Fletch137]

Just checked and you're right... bad example, I should have checked before I posted. There are, however, plenty of larger companies that did just use a link in the footer (Amazon was one). The day before (IIRC) the deadline for having the law applied, the ICO decided that implied consent could be used, thus making a link in the footer perfectly okay.

[malsme]

The ICO's interpretation of the privacy law requires the user to understand that continued usage of a website will result in tracking (i.e. alert them until they agree), so the BBC's version complies better with the recommendations.

That's what they mean by implied consent – the user can use the website so long as they understand the situation, they don't have to physically agree. A lot of websites then decided to take their own meaning from the term "implied consent" without reading the document.