Me love cookies: Cookie monster might not be so enthusiastic about internet cookies, which can be used to track your movements online

By any yardstick the implementation of the EU's Privacy and Communications Directive by its member states has been poor.

This is the 'cookie law' that governs what information a web site can collect on its visitors without explicitly asking them if it's ok.

When the deadline to implement it passed in May only Estonia, Denmark and the UK had taken steps to bring it into law.

Denmark has now decided to puts it draft rules on ice indefinitely and the UK has given firms a year to comply.

To give the UK's Information Commissioner's Office its due, its guidance on the law is probably the most comprehensive of any member state so far.

Internet stalking

This Directive was born of consumer concerns upon finding adverts for a particular product they had previously looked at mysteriously appearing on subsequent sites they visited.

This led to an outcry as people realised they were basically being stalked around the internet.

And who was this sneaky perpetrator? Cookies.

Most cookies perform basic functional tasks like storing your login details or personal preferences.

The perceived villain of the piece was 'third party cookies'; the ones that enable companies to work out what you like and what you might want to buy, thus allowing them to tailor their marketing to you.

So the Directive was drawn up which divided cookies into those which are 'strictly necessary' for a service being provided and others, which will require consent from users.