Macrotone Blogs

Macrotone blogs upon Joomla, our products and other matters.

PECR–Cookies and Joomla Part 2

Since my original post there have been several new developments announced, so this is to update my list of software:

1.  Name:  Kookie Grab   Website: JED

Notes:  An updated version announced  on the Joomla Extensions Directory, written by Kevin Griffiths.  Non-commercial it seems to have resolved the initial problems I discovered with it.

3.  Name:  Channel Computing   Website:  Channel Computing

Notes:  A plugin that displays a banner on the page.  A free lite version  and two commercial available.  This is the solution with have chosen to use (at least initially) as it minimises the changes required.   There seem to have been at least 3 updates to this software, some of which introduced problems along the way.  Still a very simple and clean solution.  

5. System - EU e-Privacy Directive

An extension by Michael Richey, which is non-commercial.  I have used some of Michae’s extensions previously and they all work very well.  Definitely worth a look at, especially if it does as claimed.

6.  Cookie Alert

A commercial offering, which I have not tested.

In addition there are several commercial offerings which seem to be appearing.  The Oracle web site used a product from Etrust which is interesting although probably over kill for most Joomla sites.

If you want to roll your own Portent have a free script code example.  Also worth looking at is Wolf Software which has a collection of scripts.  They do however store a cookie themselves even if you request no cookies, which somehow seems to defeat the object, and of course it all relies upon Javascript.



Macrotone Web Site Cookies

Cookies Overview

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit.   They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.

The table below explains the cookies we use and why.  View our Privacy Policy to learn more about cookies.

First Party Cookies

Cookie Name Purpose More info
Google Analytics __utma
__utmb
__utmc
__utmz
These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. Disallowing the use of these cookies prevents us from accurately analysing visitor numbers and visitors trends.
Click here for more information on Google Analytics and the Cookies it uses.
Macrotone Consulting Web site bb2_screener_

This cookie is used by Bad Behavior  to ensure the security of the site and each visitor’s session.

This cookie is believed to be exempt from the regulation because it is a site security cookie meant to help comply with the seventh data protection principle.

 
 

‘encrypted name’

Encrypted session cookie used by the web site to track the visitor.  Both the name and the value are encrypted.

Expires at the end of the session.

The session cookie name is an MD5 hash of logged in username (if logged in),  ip address, and some other info. 
The names and values are to all extents meaningless. 
In addition to the session cookie, if you have set the "remember me" flag there is also a remember me cookie saved with an encrypted version of your username and password.

  cookieAcceptanceCookie Indicates acceptance of Cookies policy.  Created when visitor has accepted cookie policy.

 

Third Party Cookies

Cookie Name Purpose More info
Twitter 'Tweet' button unique id pid This cookie is set by twitter.com to save a unique anonymous id for each website visitor.
Only present if Twitter is used on the site.

Please visit twitter.com to find out more. To delete this cookie you must manually delete this via your web browser settings.

PECR – Cookies and Joomla

I have discovered a few pieces of software that provide a start in satisfying the PECR Cookie regulations which come into effect on 26th May 2012.

I make no claims for any of these pieces of software, but my searches may be of use to others.   In total I have found the following:

Continue reading

PECR, ICO cookies regulations

The new Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), announced by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in 2011, comes into effect on 26th May 2012.  In advance of the ICO cookies compliance date, organisations are expected to take appropriate steps to be compliant, which include making proactive changes to their websites.

We have blogged about this topic before and reference should be made to the official EU cookie compliance guide (registration required) which contains news and advice for organisations in Europe and around the world for complying with the cookie law.

The ICO provides specific guidance on PECR compliance.  However this is not all that clear (to me at least), so the absence of clear guidance on cookie compliance, and the range of practical difficulties that will be encountered in determining what to do with each identified cookie, may lead many website operators to struggle with the compliance process.

Continue reading

Site Spam Protection

We have noticed for some time a steady stream of Spam Comments added to our Blog entries and articles.  We know that we are not alone in this and that it seems to be a ‘fact of life’ that certain individuals wish to waste their time in creating such trivia. 

To minimise the disruption and annoyance these cause, these have been kept under control using a variety of methods and we recently changed our Blogging tool as a step to minimising this problem.

However one thing we did notice was that there were still Spam comments being entered even for content items that were no longer visible on the site.

We are sure that the majority of our visitors are not that interested in goods that these Spam entries advertise so have decided to take another step to trap more of these entries and introduce a further step in our line of defences.

Akeeba Admin Tools Pro has a very useful tool in the ‘Web Access Filter’ that can be used to assist in this task.  [We are users of this product and recommend it to our users, as satisfied customers and for the excellent support provided.]

We hope that this will not create any problems to our visitors and will continue to monitor the situation as time goes by. 

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sh404sef plugin for Codingfish Discussions v1.5

We are pleased to release v1.0.0 of an installable sh404sef plug-in for the popular Codingfish Discussions v1.5 Joomla component.

Developed internally for our own use we have decided to make it available to the wider Joomla community.

Problems writing a sh404sef installable plugin - resolved

I have been having problems getting a sh404sef installable plug-in working on Joomla 2.5.  Looking around the web, it seems that there do not appear to be any at all.  Of the sh404sef plug-ins available they nearly all require that the code is placed in a sef_ext directory under the component, OR placed in the sef_ext directory under the sh404sef component on the site (along with the supplied components).   This is not quite the same as having a separate installable plugin component.

 

The Anything Digital website has an article explaining how to write one, but no matter what I tried it would not work.  They helpfully provide a 'Developer' support forum, so I raised a question.  Not very helpfully they closed it with an instruction to raise the question in another forum.  A complete waste of time.  Reading around on the web, it seems I am not the only person to experience this type of response.

Continue reading

Four steps to comply with PECR, ICO cookies regulations

The new PECR regulations, announced by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in 2011, will be enforced in May 2012. In advance of that date, organisations are expected to take appropriate steps to be compliant, which include making proactive changes to their websites.

The absence of clear guidance on cookie compliance, and the range of practical difficulties that will be encountered in determining what to do with each identified cookie, may lead many website operators to struggle with the compliance process. To make the process easier, here are four steps you can take to make the appropriate changes to your website in order to comply with the PECR cookie regulations.

This article [Requires registration] discusses the steps to take further.

End of the line for Oracle Discoverer?

Having used Oracle Discoverer for many years and developed a few applications for clients using the tool, it was sad to see the statement of direction from Oracle in January 2009 encouraging users to migrate to Oracle Business Intelligence.

Whilst recognising that things cannot stand still Oracle Discoverer was a very good relatively light weight product.  Oracle Business Intelligence whilst being a good product doesn't really class as light weight, which ever way one looks at it, requiring a Web server and all that that entails.

This recent article is just another encouragement to those Discoverer users to migrate.  Could we soon be seeing the nail in the Discoverer coffin?

PECR Regulation compliance

The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) governing the use of electronic cookies, announced in 2011, will be enforced in May 2012. In advance of that date, organisations are expected to take appropriate steps to be compliant.

This will impact all/most sites including Joomla where cookies are used.  A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that websites place on their visitors' computers, and despite its small size, it can reveal a lot of information website visitors may not be eager to share. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) provides specific guidance on PECR compliance and recommends a cookie audit as the first step. This article [Requires registration] explains how to audit cookies on an organisation's website.

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