Lookie Cookie FAQ

Is the Plugin free?

Yes it is. This plugin will remain free.

Why the Lookie Cookie plugin name?

Perhaps we did not cover ourselves in glory here.

Lookie as in "Look! something popped up"

Cookie as in we are seeking consent to store cookies on the site.

And most importantly, the name rhymes like all the other wee plugins.

<rant>There may be an element of satire in the plugin name. While we take data privacy very seriously indeed, we recognize the EU Cookie Law is a really poor bit of legislation that imposes cost on website owners (tens of millions of small businesses) and could have been implemented more effectively and efficiently at less than one thousandth of the cost to the economy by getting the few dozen browser manufacturers to implement the required cookie controls. Not every small business can afford to hire a full time compliance officer nor should they have to.</rant>

What support is available?

As the plugin is free then the support is necessarily limited.

We will:

• fix bugs
• answer questions by adding to the FAQ
• prepare tutorials to explain how the plugin features can be used
• maintain the plugin to keep it up to date with WordPress
• update the plugin in line with any legislative changes to the EU Cookie Law

Does The Plugin Allow Individuals Cookies To Be Disabled?

No. We believe the most robust solution for individual cookie control is managed in the browser.

The reason for this is that cookies live in the browser.

A website can load a script from another site that loads a script from a third site and so on. The original site has no prior visibility of the downstream chain of events. However, the browser on the visitor's device has full visibility and control of the cookies being presented.

There are solutions available that make best efforts to identify what cookies might be downloaded when visiting a site however they are complex, and tend to cost around $30 per month for each site. They operate by having robots trawl the site frequently to see what cookies get produced and automatically update the cookie policy page to list these cookies, and then attempt a way of managing permission on these cookies. This is complicated, not 100% reliable and end up showing the visitor a list of cookies that are largely meaningless to them.

Many large companies are adopting a solution that does not allow individual opt-outs on the website. For example, go to Yahoo in incognito mode on your browser. The decision there is either to accept the cookies or get on your horse and ride to the next town!