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Spotlight on ...

THE LATEST ON EU

PRIVACY LAW

Text: Alan Rhode, Co-Founder Taxmen

Platforms using advertising or analytical cookies are strictly required under European
Union law to get a person’s consent to store a cookie on their device before deploying
cookies to collect personal data. Outside the European Union, the UK and Switzerland

apply similar limitations. User consent is not necessary, on the contrary, for technical
cookies, meaning those cookies needed only for the operation of a platform or website
(e.g., authentication cookies).

ookies are a very useful, almost fundamental, tool for consent to advertising cookies when a visitor reaches our
for marketing purposes: so, all data controllers platform? Let us start with what we cannot do.
Care potentially tempted to make extensive use of
advertising cookies, with the risk of falling short of complying Cookie walls – also known as “tracking walls” – are pop-up
with European data protection requirements. banners requiring users to “agree” or “accept” the setting of
cookies before they can access an online service’s content. So,
In Europe, the use of cookies is regulated by the ePrivacy they are based on a “take it or leave it” approach. Users are forced
Directive (Directive 2002/58/EC), supplemented in some areas to agree to the use of advertising cookies if they want to navigate
by the General Data Protection Regulation (better known the site.
under the acronym GDPR). The European Union is working on
new specific regulation concerning electronic communications, The European Data Protection Board, an independent European
referred to as the ePrivacy Regulation, which should see the body, which contributes to the consistent application of data
light of day in the next few years. It will be a set of rules directly protection rules throughout the EU, updated its guidelines on
enforceable in all European countries, without the need to be consent in May 2020 by saying that: “In order for consent to
transposed into national laws. be freely given, access to services and functionalities must not
be made conditional on the consent of a user to the storing of
So, before unleashing the cookies, how can we rightfully ask information, or gaining of access to information already stored,

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