EU PECR rules on getting permission to use cookies - how can XF help make me compliant?

I remember once that I went to buy some airline tickets and the price was $40 more than the linked price. Once I deleted my cookies, the price was proper. Yes, I call this theft.
I have also noticed that air lines them self change price based on your search. For example, if you search for a trip with a friend, then call your friend and agree on details etc, then search again, to order, the price might have changed. It is almost frightening how common it is to set price based on your browsing history.
 
I remember once that I went to buy some airline tickets and the price was $40 more than the linked price. Once I deleted my cookies, the price was proper. Yes, I call this theft.

Airline ticket prices vary dynamically depending on how many searches they've had for a specific flight. Nothing to do with your cookies.
 
Airline ticket prices vary dynamically depending on how many searches they've had for a specific flight. Nothing to do with your cookies.
And how many seats are remaing on the flight, supply/demand and all that. Just look at easy jet/Ryan air etc.
 
It is confirmed, the cookie stays active for 10 days. Anything you purchase through an affiliate link will bring money to the visited site owner and Simlinks/Viglink, regardless if you buy or not a product/service through the original affiliate link they posted in their site. I have no idea why they allow this in other countries, users should be informed they are putting money into someone else's pocket without knowing.
Ok, how many times have you used comparison websites - how do you think they make their money or clicked on an affiliate link without knowing it - its transparent and at the end of the day, costs you nothing. You don't pay extra because you clicked on an affiliate link. Ever bought a hotel or a hire car off an email shot by an airline (Ryanair are masters at this) - it will be an affiliate link.

Affiliate programs are so widespread, I seriously doubt you could avoid every single one if you tried. Its simply a way of thanking someone for sending a customer their way - its common place in business.

I remember once that I went to buy some airline tickets and the price was $40 more than the linked price. Once I deleted my cookies, the price was proper. Yes, I call this theft.
There could be a whole plethora of reasons for this as others have noted, the airline system does seem to have a mind of its own when it comes to prices though.

That is nice, I did not see this anywhere on sites that use the system. Feel free to show me few examples. I'm pretty sure that option is very well hidden, not clear like the UK cookie system is.
Simples: http://skimlinks.com/opt-out (linked from their privacy policy)

It is your choice to accept those type of programs, the same way I see them as a bunch of scammers and thiefs that take advantage of the legal system. I bet 99% of people who click on links like that have no idea how the system works. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I respect your choice, the same way I'm sure you respect mines. :)
Well, I see them as a way to earn money from my website, without begging the users for money, if they click on a link and buy something off eBay, that's fine. As I said, they don't pay any extra from doing so and it helps keep my site running.

Whilst I respect your right to have an opinion, I can't help it if its wrong ;)

Its not a scam and its not theft - those are two very strong words which imply criminal intent and are probably libellous (in the extreme).

But I'd agree, yes, if a site detected that you were coming in from an affiliate link and upped the prices accordingly, I would be seriously annoyed!

(btw mods, if you wish, it may be worth splitting these related posts off into their own thread rather than clogging this one up.)
 
Whilst I respect your right to have an opinion, I can't help it if its wrong ;)
I presume you are using those programs, that's why you defend them. Personally, I would not say a word if every site using those programs would give the choice to the users, like the UK cookie law does. I bet you don't advertise on your site the link Skimlinks displays to opt-out. You should, as it would be fair to your users. Honestly, if a site would tell me straight up "Floren, we use the Skimlinks to help pay our bills, thank you for your support. If you don't like this, you can opt-out.", I will support them and have no objection because I'm informed. In fact, I would probably click on purpose on some links, just to thank them for their honesty. What really bothers me is the sneaky way those programs implement the forged links, because the law allows them to do so.

I do know a site that publicly explains the use of these affiliate links. They also take a portion of the revenue from the links and buy gift items offered on a lottery based system to users. That site makes a HUGE revenue from the links, over $20,000 every month. I know because I did some modifications to the scripts. If they would not display to users the info about the hacked links, I would of never accepted to optimize their servers and the dynamic links.

Edit: Even if the subject is a little deviated, it is still related to the UK cookie law. That's the reason I decided to post the reply here, instead of continuing this in a conversation.
 
I remember once that I went to buy some airline tickets and the price was $40 more than the linked price. Once I deleted my cookies, the price was proper. Yes, I call this theft.

Yes, same happened to me. This is NOT okay.
 
Yes, same happened to me. This is NOT okay.

On a blog of a lawyer there was discussion about this and that was after the conclusion websites used this method of tracking people with cookies and offering them prices based on searches and visits. The lawyer said the company is under no obligation to offer the same price for any one the person buying needs to make a his own choice of buying something for a price. The conclusion was that you need to look around before you buy.
 
Pretty sure he is referring to the fact that is not OK for him as end user to have the price boosted, not from a legal stand. That's actually why Skimlinks, Viglinks and other similar programs are profitable for themselfs as well the site owners. The point I'm trying to make is related to users being informed. That's all the UK cookie law does and is great. I really hope this will be implemented everywhere, not just in Europe. Personally, I would not have an issue if site would deliberely inform the users they use use affiliate links that generate them revenue, even 10 days after they visited eBay or other similar sites. For the average Joe guy, he would of probably purchased the ticket with an extra $40 that actually goes to the site owner who installed the "theft" cookie in his computer.

Honesty is very important to me. Every time I see a site ran honestly, I will support it 100%. I guess that is what the site owners running those scam links should realize: inform your users and you will benefit more than actually hide it.
 
That's actually why Skimlinks, Viglinks and other similar programs are profitable for themselfs as well the site owners.
//snipped
I guess that is what the site owners running those scam links should realize: inform your users and you will benefit more than actually hide it.
I would actually say I have NEVER seen a case where someone has gone through a VigLink / SkimLinks affiliate link and had the price lifted because they went through an affiliate link. You may have done with the Airlines, but I bet it wasn't a link from either of those two companies.

It probably wasn't even an affiliate link you clicked, rather the airline tracked your activity and yanked up the price because of that.

There are two different issues here, unfair and downright dishonest behaviour from an airline website and affiliate links created by VigLink and SkimLinks. The latter does not and I never have seen it result in a more expensive price if you click on a link. If I ever saw that I would ask SkimLinks to block that advertiser on my website, there's no way I want to earn money through a user paying more for something just because they clicked on a link on my site.

But I do wish you would stop referring to them as Scam links as they are not. It is not a scam, its simply affiliate links. Yes, I could understand it if people paid more for clicking on the links, but they don't. At least not from those two companies of which I have direct experience, I can't comment on any other company.
 
But I do wish you would stop referring to them as Scam links as they are not. It is not a scam, its simply affiliate links.
Unfortunately that will not be possible (you wishing that I stop calling this type of site monetization a scam). I will when they promote a clear and transparent implementation in their products. For example, when they include a warning where it states clearly what the end user can have as effect while clicking on their links. If they would do this, 90% of their business will be gone. Even if you opt out of their system, they will still track you to see what you are doing on the Internet.

I would like to see how Skimlinks implements the Cookie law into their products, as they are a UK based company. I did saw a recent blog entry where they suggest you should be honest with your users and let them know how the links might affect them. Funny how they never mentioned this before... at least I did not see it mentioned in their TOS and they certainly did not do anything to help the site owners display any warnings to end user.

Hopefully, a law similar to Cookie one will be implemented and this matter will be solved. The Cookie law is very simple: Be honest to your users. That is a phrase not many people like, when it comes the time to profit from affiliate links or other similar marketeer schemes.
 
I was open with my membership when I added Viglink - explained how it worked, why I added it (to help support the running of the site), and also linked to the Viglink cookie opt-out page so that my members were free to chose not to use Viglink affiliated links if they preferred.

I would never knowingly rip-off my members - it's just not worth it. I don't lie to them, go behind their backs, or try to profit from them without their consent; and if I thought for one minute that a revenue scheme I was using was actually costing my members more money - I would remove it without hesitation.

I agree with the principle of informing your membership; regardless of the law or EU regulations it is good to be open with them and allow them to make an informed choice. They understand that you need to generate revenue to operate the site/s and will respect you for being honest (and most likely be more supportive as a result).

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
Certain businesses (like airlines, hotels, etc.) raise the price automatically IF they have to pay an affiliate commission. If you visit their sites without an affiliate cookie, you get lower prices.

Everyone can test it with searching for a specific flight in Orbitz, catching an affiliate cookie and searching the same flight again. You can even use 2 browsers (one with, one without affiliate cookie) to catch the price at the same time.

If you delete the affiliate cookie manually you get the lower price again.

So, if you don't want to rip off your customers, you can only use affiliate systems with a fair customer treatment. Like eBay, Amazon, etc.
 
TBH I wasn't aware this was happening. I presumed that the sellers simply factored-in the cost of the affiliate commissions or off-set them against the cost of advertising for those same leads/customers and that you, the end user, paid no extra for the goods/services.

I think it's pretty sharp practice not to inform you that you might pay more because you've previously visited/searched and affiliated web site.

Let's face it, most people are not savvy about cookies and tracking and have no clue as to what/whom may be lurking in their browser cache.

It would be useful to expose the providers/sellers who do this - whether it is illegal or not, it's definitely not very moral!!!
 
Hopefully, a law similar to Cookie one will be implemented and this matter will be solved. The Cookie law is very simple: Be honest to your users. That is a phrase not many people like, when it comes the time to profit from affiliate links or other similar marketeer schemes.

The cookie is not set unless they click the link correct? If so, then the warning would have to be pop-up by the company setting the link at that time? The cookie is not being set by the XenForo web site is it?
 
Everyone can test it with searching for a specific flight in Orbitz, catching an affiliate cookie and searching the same flight again. You can even use 2 browsers (one with, one without affiliate cookie) to catch the price at the same time.

I'd like to try it. Which affiliate cookie and where do I get it? I'm curious whether it affects the airline's website pricing also.
 
The cookie is not set unless they click the link correct? If so, then the warning would have to be pop-up by the company setting the link at that time? The cookie is not being set by the XenForo web site is it?
No, you don't need popup warnings to satisfy the regulations, simply be clear on your website over what cookies are set and what they are for.
 
I've just released this in the Resource Manager.
That add-on does not make your site compliant, it simply implements the civicuk.com popup, which I'm pretty sure it was created only to boost their ranks in Google as it does absolutely nothing related to UK cookie law.
 
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That add-on does not make your site compliant, it simply implements the civicuk.com popup, which I'm pretty sure it was created only to boost their ranks in Google as it does absolutely nothing related to UK cookie law.

This addon does infact make you compliant under informed consent and meets the informed consent requirements. That said, I do prefer the heart internet version over the civic one.
 
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