I am back with some cookies

After a long while, I am back to my unstructured posts about cookies, consent, privacy, IT security and other funny issues.

This time, I’d like to get back (once again) to the cookies and the consent issue, just to briefly remind people the basic rule expressed in the Case C‑673/17 by the European Supreme Court of Justice (the sentence can be accessed here).

Cookies

Cookies

Rule of thumb for cookies and consent:

«… consent given in the form of a preselected tick in a checkbox does not imply active behaviour on the part of a website user…».

Cookies and Consent: The Legal Approach

My suggested approach for the developers out there goes like this:

  1. Have a complete inventory of the cookies the Web editor wants to have in his/her Web page;
    1. Don’t know how? Well, try this (you’re welcome);
  2. Categorize the cookies between the necessary and the not-necessary;
    1. Not sure how? Bear in mind that the necessary ones are only the technical cookies that allow the communication between the visitor’s browser and the the Web page;
    2. Conversely, the others belong to the not-necessary category;
  3. Use one of the hundreds of plug-ins available to show the visitor the options available;
  4. Don’t forget to follow the above expressed rule;
    1. don’t play dirty tricks: pre-selected checkbox doesn’t fit in the consent definition.

By the way, I managed the cookies issue in this way. Thoughts?

Cookies and Consent: The Marketing Approach

There is at least a different approach, not sponsored nor endorsed in any way by me. It’s what I call the «Marketing approach«.

You may follow the previous 3 steps and be creative with the 4th. That means, you may prefer to have all the checkbox selected by default. As a result, the Marketing department will have access to valuable information provided by the not-necessary cookies.

BUT (capital letters used on purpose) you are clearly infringing the law. You could be lucky, receiving a reprimand instead of a fine. Would you like to play this Russian roulette?

P.S. Please, kindly inform me of any misspelled words, errors, broken links, inaccuracies, etc. Thank you in advance.