The European Commission wants to do away with cookie banners for every website visit.
According to Politico, the European Commission is working on plans to simplify the controversial cookie rules from 2009 that flooded the internet with consent pop-ups. The proposal would become one of Brussels’ most visible steps in deregulating digital rules.
From Necessary Protection to Click Habit
The cookie rules are part of the e-Privacy Directive, which since 2009 requires websites to request consent for placing cookies unless they are strictly necessary for a service. In practice, this has led to an abundance of consent banners that almost every user nowadays clicks away as quickly as possible.
“Too much consent makes consent worthless,” says Peter Craddock, data protection lawyer at Keller and Heckman. “If consent becomes the standard for everything, people stop reading the details in cookie banners.”
Simplification and more Exceptions
The European Commission is investigating how the banner can be simplified. One option is for users to set their preferences once, for example in the browser, instead of with every website visit. Member states like Denmark advocate for removing banners for “innocent” cookies, such as those for technical functions or basic statistics.
Privacy Lobby on the Offensive
However, privacy organizations are immediately sounding the alarm. They fear that exceptions will open the door to more tracking and profiling. The battle over cookies promises to flare up again next year when the Commission presents the Digital Fairness Act, a new law aimed at protecting consumers from manipulative online designs and unfair personalization.