Further to my previous announcements in relation to my Office's audits of websites regarding the use of cookies, I would like to inform you that around 30 audits have been completed, mainly concerning news and other related public information websites.
It is recalled that cookies are small data files stored by a website on a visitor's computer or mobile device, for which, under the law, users' consent is required (with the exception of those that are strictly necessary for the information society service provider to provide the service explicitly requested by the user).
The operators of the websites audited had received letters with the audit findings, which they were asked to correct. Due to the fact that these audits were the first of their kind, and websites are constantly being upgraded with the use of new technologies, website administrators were given a long period of time to comply and a number of letters were sent with suggestions/clarifications on problems encountered during the audits.
The main issues identified during the audits were the following.
[*]Most websites did not provide information on the purposes of the use of cookies. [*]Websites that had information about the use of cookies did not obtain explicit user consent for the use of cookies or the way of obtaining consent did not meet the requirements for legal consent (free, revocable, etc.). [*]Some cookies, e.g. for measuring website traffic, were wrongly categorised as 'strictly necessary'.
Following our suggestions we have established that there has been compliance with the provisions of the legislation and the target of the audit. The audits were carried out within a certain period of time and the compliance of the websites will be re-examined.
To the question that is usually asked about how other Supervisory Authorities deal with the use of cookies, I would like to mention that they have carried out and are carrying out corresponding audits and are taking various actions with the aim of complying with the legislation.
My Office follows and participates in the discussions of the European Data Protection Board (EDPS) groups, in which various issues in relation to the use of cookies are addressed to further uniformity in the approach of the members of the EDPS. If necessary, we will carry out additional checks on the issues under discussion, for example in relation to the use of Google Analytics and Facebook connect/pixel and other new technologies.
(NG/SX)
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