The practice of using cookies to collect non-personal information from browsers has long been viewed as appropriate.  There's certainly enough of an industry built around it that a finding that it violates existing privacy rules would have significant ramifications for the internet as we know it.  Such a finding is quite improbable. That said, there's definitely some debate about how exactly this practice should be disclosed to users.  Buried in a terms of use with a link to an "easily accessible" opt-out page? 

"All Things D" (a tech/business site run by, among others, Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg - both WSJ reporters) put in place a practice that's pretty non-intrusive, and which alerts readers that the site - like 90% of the websites with advertising on them - uses cookies to collect information.  Check out the screenshots below:

   
When you mouse over the "note" it expands and tells you how to opt-out:


Pretty nifty.  A pretty quick and easy way to earn trust in my opinion.  Although this level of disclosure is not required by the rules, it's an easy way to build trust.

On a side note, All Things D has a Talking Points Memo-like feel to it.  A lean, well run site that cranks out quality content.  With the fate of newspapers in flux, this has to be a model that many reporters will embrace.