Posts relating to cookies: not the tasty ones, but the small chunks of digital data that may be left behind in your web browser by websites
In going through the new (2023) Data Protection and Digital Information (No.2) Bill I noticed that it does actually make a change to UK law on cookies: according to clause 79(2A), consent will no longer be needed to store or access information in the user’s terminal equipment if this is done by the person who […]
More than a decade ago, European data protection regulators identified the problem of “consent fatigue”, where website users were overwhelmed with multiple requests to give consent for processing of their personal data. In theory, responding to those requests let individuals exercise control but, in practice, it seemed more likely that they were just clicking whatever […]
[Update (Nov’21): I’ve discovered that Patrick Breyer MEP has published a “parallel text” of the three current proposals (Commission, Parliament and Council). Not exactly easy reading, but it makes it much easier to see where they are similar, and where there remain significant differences] [Original (Feb’21) post…] After four years, and nearly three years after […]
To improve websites and other online services, measuring how they are used is a key tool. However the law on measuring visitors to websites is a mess. Nine years ago, when reviewing the types of cookies that do not need consent, the Article 29 Working Party of data protection regulators concluded that requiring consent when […]
Dataguidance is reporting that the German presidency has produced its progress report on the last six months of discussions on the ePrivacy Regulation. Recall that this was supposed to come into force on the same day as the GDPR… And it seems that Member States still haven’t reached agreement on what purposes might justify a […]
It seems a long time since I wrote about the ePrivacy Regulation. This was supposed to come into force alongside the GDPR, back in May 2018, and provide specific guidance on its application to the communications sector. You may remember it as “Cookie law”, though it was never just that. Unfortunately its scope grew and, […]
Alongside the 1995 Data Protection Directive (DPD) sat the 2002 ePrivacy Directive (ePD), explaining how the DPD should be applied in the specific context of electronic communications. In fact, particularly after it was amended in 2009, the ePD did a bit more than that, as it turned out to be a convenient place to insert […]
Robin Wilton of the Internet Society gave a talk at the TERENA Networking Conference on the interaction between privacy, regulation, and innovation. It’s a commonly heard claim that regulation stifles innovation; yet the evidence of premium rate phone fraud and other more or less criminal activities suggests that regulation can, in fact, stimulate innovation, though […]
In what sometimes seems like a polarised debate on the draft Data Protection Regulation, it’s good to see the Article 29 Working Party trying to find the middle ground. The subject of their latest advice note is the contentious topic of profiling, which has been presented both as vital to the operation and development of […]
The International Chamber of Commerce has published a revised version of its Cookie Guide, reflecting the new information that has been produced by the Information Commissioner and Article 29 Working Party since the original version last April. There are relatively few changes to the existing text, in particular the four ICC categories of cookie remain […]