U.K. Information Commissioner's Office Cracks Down on Cookie Consent Manager Choices
The U.K Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is starting to crack down on cookie consent managers. The ICO’s requirements for an easy “reject all” capability mirrors previous guidance provided by the European Data Protection Board, as well as originally proposed regulations by the California Privacy Protection Agency.
For businesses this means making sure that the cookie consent banners provide options that make it as easy to reject all non-essential cookies as it is to accept all non-essential cookies – a user should not need extra steps and have to open the full cookie consent manager via a “manage cookie preferences” link to manually turn off cookies when they could accept them all through a single click.
The Information Commissioner has warned some of the UK’s top websites they face enforcement action if they do not make changes to comply with data protection law.
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Some websites do not give users fair choices over whether or not to be tracked for personalised advertising. The ICO has previously issued clear guidance that organisations must make it as easy for users to “Reject All” advertising cookies as it is to “Accept All”. Websites can still display adverts when users reject all tracking, but must not tailor these to the person browsing.
