I confess I have read the EU cookie stuff but am still not really in the clear. Our school Moodle is 1.9 and serves as our website so many pages/courses leading off the front page are guest access. We don't allow guests to login; we don't sell them anything or make links to twitter/facebook etc or use google analytics. We do obviously check up on guests via Moodle logs. So do we need that cookie message or not?
Do I need a cookie acceptance form thing for Moodle used as a website?
by Mary Cooch -
Number of replies: 3
In reply to Mary Cooch
Re: Do I need a cookie acceptance form thing for Moodle used as a website?
by Dan Poltawski -
Hi Mary,
I am not a lawyer..!
But my understanding of the law is that the Moodle cookies related to authentication (allowing you to login and stay logged in) are perfectly acceptable without requiring prompting. These are necessary for Moodle to operate and seems to be fine.
There is another Moodle option in 2.x the 'remember your username' option, which by the letter of the law is not acceptable and it'd be safer to disable that in 2.x Moodles.
Its possible that there are other cookies that have not been eliminated or in third-party plugins. Personally i'm an optimist (again, not a lawyer) and would be very disappointed if the legal system went against a school for using a moodle plugin which remembered a tickbox using cookies.
By the way, if your school Moodle is still supported by your Local Authority this seems exactly the sort of thing they should be positioned to help you with (though I worry they would go for the cautious lawyer outlook).
For others who might not have seen threads about this topic:
In reply to Mary Cooch
Re: Do I need a cookie acceptance form thing for Moodle used as a website?
by Howard Miller -
Also - IANAL
However, my interpretation is No. The moodle cookies are only used to store some very basic information (all the actual session information is stored on the server - the cookie is only a pointer to it) and is completely necessary for the correct operation of the site.
If you want my $00.02 it was yet another stupid, ill thought out ruling and I don't particularly want to encourage this sort of thing. If some rat-bag decides to come after Moodle sites you will get a shot across the bows first anyway. Obviously, if you ask your local authority they will convene a committee that will sit twice a week for the next six months, cost your rate payers hundreds of thousands and then wimp out say you have to put up a warning
Not remotely cynical !!
However, my interpretation is No. The moodle cookies are only used to store some very basic information (all the actual session information is stored on the server - the cookie is only a pointer to it) and is completely necessary for the correct operation of the site.
If you want my $00.02 it was yet another stupid, ill thought out ruling and I don't particularly want to encourage this sort of thing. If some rat-bag decides to come after Moodle sites you will get a shot across the bows first anyway. Obviously, if you ask your local authority they will convene a committee that will sit twice a week for the next six months, cost your rate payers hundreds of thousands and then wimp out say you have to put up a warning
Not remotely cynical !!
In reply to Howard Miller
Re: Do I need a cookie acceptance form thing for Moodle used as a website?
by Mary Cooch -
That would be the same local authority that still has us all on 1.9 then would it Howard?
Not cynical either...
I will forget about cookies.; thanks Dan and Howard