Telecom law approved by EU: ask for cookies, but in browser

Fri 27 November 2009 13:30, Bas van den Beld

The new Telecom law proposed by the European Union we discussed several weeks ago has been approved by the European Parliament. After two years of talks and negotiations the law is approved and the countries now have to integrate it in their laws before the end of 2012.

The law is mainly meant to get the Telecom providers on one line, getting the competition straightened out and protecting the European citizens from paying too much. Which is good. But in the online- and search industry there was much rumor about one rule in the law which talks about cookies. This rule will stay in the law, but does have a "but" to it. Browser settings should be sufficient.

The rule states:

"In addition, the rules concerning privacy and data protection are strengthened, e.g. on the use of “cookies” and similar devices. Internet users will be better informed about cookies and about what happens to their personal data, and they will find it easier to exercise control over their personal information in practice. Furthermore, internet service providers will also gain the right to protect their business and their customers through legal action against spammers."

This would mean you would have to ask permission to a user for every time you set one. The rule however now shows an extra explanation which states that asking for permission just once should be enough. This doesn't have to be on a website level, but can also be set on a browser level, which means a user will only have to set his settings to "accept cookies" and all will be fine. Probably...

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Comments (1)

- Dennis Sievers
- [website]
Lets hope so :-)

Fri 27 Nov 2009, 13:50

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