Monday, August 3, 2015

A Google Courtesy Has Saved Me From Breaking A European Union Cookie Law

Several days ago when logging into my various blogs I found myself greeted with the message from Google you see here, contained in the yellow box.

The message in its entirety...

European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent.

As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies. 

You are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for your blog, and that it displays. If you employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for you. Learn more about this notice and your responsibilities.

What fresh hell is this, I read and wondered?

Why would the European Union get itself all worked up over blog cookies? I clicked on the "learn more" link to learn more about my responsibilities regarding this serious issue. And to make sure the Google notice actually works.

Well, you click on "learn more" to learn that one needs to go to the Euro versions of ones blog to check on the Google notice, the examples given by Google were for France and the UK. So, I checked on durangotexas.blogspot.co.uk and durangotexas.blogspot.fr and found no notice added as a courtesy by Google.

I decided not to worry about it, except for a concern deep in the recesses of my imagination that the EU version of the FBI might soon be after me.

And then this morning I checked once again and was pleased to discover that Google has now added the courteous notice Google said they would  add as a courtesy...


All is now well with the world, with me no longer worried about a knock on the door be the EU FBI. Or Interpol...