„Implied Consent“ to Cookies Being Set Suffices in the UK

Contrary to what had been the understanding before, the ICO in its capacity as data privacy watchdog in the UK has now declared in his guidance (download it here) that implied consent – if actually given – is just as valid a form of consent as explicit consent. That is not to say that website owners can simply continue to as before. When you read through the ICO’s advice on how implied consent may be brought about, it becomes quite clear that there really is not much difference from what the website owner must do to obtain explicit consent. Continue reading

CNIL’s Sends Second Questionnaire to Google on Google’s New Privacy Policy

Google’s new privacy policy is not that new, as it “went into force” on March 1. It is still big news in data protection terms, though, at least as far as European data protection authorities are concerned. CNIL, commissioned by the Art. 29 Working Party, has now sent a second rather comprehensive questionnaire to Google. Obviously they were not completely sold on Google’s answers to the first set of questions CNIL had sent in March. Continue reading

EU Cookie Law in Germany

As we are quickly moving towards Germany’s 1st anniversary of non-compliance with the infamous “EU Cookie Directive“, one would expect the legislator to really make a push to get something on paper, right? Well, not so. In fact, there isn’t even a legislative silver lining anywhere to be seen. We have witnessed one draft of a change to the “Telemedia Act” (the place where any transforming the EU’s wisdom into German law would take place) submitted by the federal state of Hessen last year that no one has really talked much about, and one draft submitted by the current opposition in the Bundestag that has now been rebuffed on committee level without before even getting a proper hearing in parliament – without spoiling us by publishing any reasons for the government’s stance, sadly. That said, that’s all good news, really. Continue reading