European Union members are not the only ones that will be affected by this legislation, however. Other countries targeting or involving EU member countries will need to be compliant as well. This means companies in the US with e-commerce sites that sell products to UK consumers or French-language sites targeted for a French audience will also have to comply, for example.

Comply with what, exactly?

1. Users have to opt-in to use sites with cookies.

2. The type of information captured by a cookie and the amount of time the information is held has to be public knowledge and in clear layman’s terms (this means you need to understand these terms, as well).

3. You have to gain consent from the ICO for the use of your cookies. Settings-led cookies, feature-led cookies and functional/analytical cookies all require different considerations, as they perform different functions.

4. Once consent is given, it is not permanent. If you change your cookie settings, it is mandatory that you file again for consent.

So how will this affect users?

It is likely there will be a banner or footer that asks the users to choose whether or not they wish to allow cookies to improve the site’s functionality. This is in the interest of providing privacy to users who do not wish cookies to collect their personal information. Though these mandates are not currently present in the US, this does not mean it won’t be implemented here eventually. It is important to remain as transparent as possible on your websites and cookie usage to avoid roadblocks later.

Visit the ICO website for more information about the ePrivacy Directive and the new rules on cookies.

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First of all, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a protocol that allows for more secure Internet data transfers for services such as email and web browsing. When searching over SSL, your search queries and traffic are encrypted, hiding them from any third parties and protecting your data from being intercepted by unwanted outsiders. It’s important to note, though, that searching over SSL only limits the data sent to third parties, not the data sent to Google.

What Are the Main Differences Between Google Search & Google Search Over SSL?

1. Because this is a new service still being tested, search over SSL is only available on Google Web Search and Images, but work continues to make it available through additional Google products. Although you’ll still see the other features, clicking on them will take you out of encrypted mode.

2. Queries performed through Google search, as well as the results, can be viewed by third parties, whereas Google search over SSL cannot.

3. A secure connection with Google is required for search over SSL, so you’re likely to notice a slower search experience.

4. If you click on a website in your search over SSL results that does not begin with https://, you may be taken out of encrypted mode, making your visited sites visible to third parties. In addition, if your computer is affected with any malware or virus, your search queries may be visible.

In a digital world driven by data, privacy issues have become a huge concern. And when it comes to search, Google search over SSL seems to be the first step in the right direction toward giving consumers more piece of mind. As Google continues to work out the kinks, it could potentially become the digital pioneer’s default search. And because search over SSL has no bearing on the data shared with Google, digital marketers should notice no change in paid search and organic traffic from Google.

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