Financial Times reports that a majority of British companies are not prepared for the new cookie regulations slated to go into effect this May. According to KPMG, approximately 95 percent of UK companies have not yet reached compliance with the new rules and could risk fines up to £500,000. Online companies worry consumers will become annoyed with repeated cookie permission requests and that they will lose valuable consumer data. One representative from a web analytics company said, "If you follow the letter of the law, you will go bust very quickly...It's like asking a retailer to operate with a blindfold on." Several companies are hoping the Information Commissioner's Office will take a lenient view, the report states, but many worry that European regulators "might not take the same approach." (Registration may be required to access this story.)
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