Cookie Consent – an Open Source Solution to EU Cookie Law

Few weeks ago, we covered the European Union’s Cookie Law, and its implications on websites based in Europe. Thereafter, we have also covered the reactions to the said law. In fact, as a UK-based site, Speckyboy itself firmly stands in support of such protests against the Cookie Law.

Speaking of protests, Silktide, one of the most prominent critics of the Cookie Law and the brains behind concepts such as No Cookie Law and the popular YouTube video The Cookie Law in Under Three Minutes, has come up with a free open-source solution to the EU Cookie Law, named Cookie Consent.

Cookie Consent Homepage

In simplest terms, Cookie Consent is a Javascript plugin created specifically for websites that are required to comply with the Cookie Law. Once installed on your website, the plugin will show your users a drop down message, asking them whether or not they’d like to allow cookies or not. Neat, eh?

Cookie Consent Privacy Settings

Apart from setting preferences for your own website, users can also set Global Preferences, which means they can enable or disable plugins for all websites in one go! As the webmaster, you can specify whether the drop down occurs from the top or the bottom of your site, and you can use custom CSS to customise its look and feel. And just in case that doesn’t make you happy, Cookie Consent is licensed under GNU GPL, so you can redistribute and modify it, if so needed.

Useful URLs

Cookie Consent Homepage →
Cookie Consent Documentation →

Over to you: what do you think of Cookie Consent and the underlying logic? Will you be using it on your website? Do share your thoughts with us in the comments.

Author: (43 Posts)

Sufyan bin Uzayr is a freelance writer and artist based in India. He writes for several print magazines as well as technology blogs, and has also authored a book named Sufism: A Brief History. His primary areas of interest include open source, mobile development, web CMS and vector art. He is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of an e-journal named Brave New World. You can visit his website, follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook and Google+.

  • Wolf Software

    We have created an entire suite of solutions to assist website owners in becoming compliant.

    http://demos.dev.wolf-software.com

  • Nick Pomeroy

    I have installed the CivicUk Cookie Consent on to clients sites to safe guard against this ridiculous law. My main problem is that I don’t think even the law makers understand how this is going to work and if the big companies aren’t doing anything then I think most small companies will just ignore it until someone gets a huge fine.

    When I was researching it the Government website didn’t even have it, but maybe that has changed or will change before the 26th.

  • Craig Francis

    I was wondering is the consent could be handled in the browser (for consistency) and websites create a computer parseible file that describes the cookies.

    http://www.craigfrancis.co.uk/features/thoughts/browserCookies/

  • Justhavingalook

    Nice article. I think there’s going to be more call for quick integration in the coming months.
    The best solution to the cookie law I’ve seen is http://www.cookieconsent.com/
    My colleague integrated it into a couple of websites recently without a hitch.