Is localStorage under The Cookie Law?

Question

I'd like to avoid having the cookies banner on my websites where possible. Could I store session id's in localStorage to bypass implementing the banner?

Answer 1

If you don't use cookies at all then it would be a huge misinformation to warn your visitors about using cookies. It may even be useful to explicitly state that you don't use cookies. Remember that warnings about cookies are for people who want to avoid cookies so they should know when they finally get to a rare website that doesn't use them. But you may still need to warn about other things, like local storage. Just don't call it cookies if those are not cookies because it would be a misinformation that can even be against the law.

According to The EU Cookie Law website:

Is is just cookies?

No - The law also affects anything that acts like a cookie, for example:

• Flash Cookies
• HTML5 Local Storage

The ICO has said that it isn't good enough to just re-implement the tracking some other way outside of cookie storage.

According to The Cookie Collective:

There are other technologies, like Flash and HTML5 Local Storage that do similar things, and these are also covered by the legislation, but as cookies are the most common technology in use, it has become known as the Cookie Law.

Answer 2

The cookie law is not actually about cookies (and its not actually called the cookie law). Its about tracking users, storing and sharing the information with third parties. Cookies are just the most popular method to track users.

If you don't want to show the "cookie warning" then just don't track the users beyond the session and don't share traffic data with third parties.

The actual directive.