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More on law, consumer and data protection
“A well-made and fair website does not need a cookie banner because it only uses technically necessary cookies. However, if website operators absolutely want to collect personal data, then they must not obtain consent for this by unfair or illegal means.” This is how the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI) Ulrich Kelber summarizes his position on the use of cookies on websites. The background to his press release is a resolution by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) on the Report of the “Cookie Banner Task Force” (PDF).
Tobias Hair
Tobias Haar is a lawyer specializing in IT law at Vogel & Partner in Karlsruhe. He also studied legal informatics and holds an MBA.
In the EDPB and among the data protection authorities of the European Union, there is no agreement on detailed questions about the requirements for the use of non-essential cookies. The websites of the EDSA do not only use technical cookies, as federal data protection officer Kelber demands from a “well-made and fair website”. Such peaks demonstrate the disagreement between European privacy advocates on detailed issues.
For example, it is disputed whether cookie banners must have a “reject all” button. Some regulators do not see this as mandatory. They refer to Article 5(3) of the 2002 E-Privacy Directive, which does not require this.
