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The UK’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and consumer protection regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), have published a joint position paper on “harmful design in digital markets”. The paper provides an insight into how these two regulators interpret the law in areas such as cookie consent banners, online interfaces,…

This article has been published as a Guidance Notee on OneTrust Data Guidance platform in December 2021. 1. GOVERNING TEXTS 1.1.    Key acts and bills There is no legislation specifically directed at cookies. Instead, cookies are regulated in the Province of Quebec under: (i) the anti-spam law; and (ii) privacy…

Earlier this year, the Irish Data Protection Commission (“DPC”), which is responsible for enforcing GDPR compliance in Ireland,  published a report  regarding how websites across a range of industries are using cookies and tracking technologies, as well as new guidance regarding what’s required to comply with GDPR from a cookie consent perspective. If you’re collecting data from…

By now, everyone has experienced some version of this situation: you’re on your phone or computer trying to read an article, buy a product, or learn more about an upcoming event. The website you’re using displays a massive cookie banner demanding that you hit the (often all-caps) “ACCEPT” button, or…

Oracle and Salesforce face precedent-setting class action lawsuits in Dutch, English and Welsh courts that claim their processing and sharing of personal data collected by third-party cookies in order to sell targeted online advertising breaches the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The cases are being brought by The Privacy Collective, a non-profit foundation set up…

June 29, 2020 In its decision of 19 June 2020, the Council of State (Conseil d’État) essentially validated the guidelines on cookies and tracking devices adopted by the CNIL on 4 July 2019. The purpose of these guidelines was to clarify the enhanced legal protection for Internet users with regard…

The user experience of browsing the web is worse than ever. Even if you only spend a tiny amount of time online, it’s impossible to escape cookie consent notices. They’re the intrusive banners and blocks that appear each time you visit a new website that collects data about you through…

Germany We have waited a long time for this and now here it is – the decision of the German Federal Court of Justice (FCJ) in relation to the so-called “Planet 49” case. The origin of the case was a dispute raised by the German Federal Association of Consumer Advice…

Cookie banners are increasingly prevalent on internet sites. A section about cookies may appear in privacy policies and, sometimes, even an entire policy is devoted exclusively to them. But what is a “cookie”? Also known as “HTTP cookies”, “browser cookies” or “web cookies”, a cookie is a small piece of…

Last year, I had the privilege of chairing and moderating a panel of data protection/privacy lawyers speaking on European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) developments at the Ontario Bar Association’s (OBA) “Privacy Law Summit”. The Privacy Law Summit is a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) conference organized annually by the Privacy and…