By Amanda Heath
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has recently reprimanded Sky Betting and Gaming for failing to collect user consent prior to placing cookies on their website. This action is part of a broader investigation by the ICO into the compliance of the top 100 websites regarding cookie usage, signalling a useful reminder for businesses to reassess their cookie policies and consent mechanisms.
The ICO continues to emphasise the need for improved compliance in this area and will be moving on to assess compliance by the next 100 most used sites. It seems likely that other organisations will be facing ICO censure.
Importantly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), whilst ICO investigation might be some way off, the potential for legal threats from “cookie trolls” is not. Cookie trolls are individuals that deliberately seek out websites with non-compliant cookie banners to elicit payments for breaching cookie laws and their data protection rights. So, there’s an added incentive to get your cookie practices in order.
What you can do
- Secure consent before setting non-essential cookies: Make sure that website visitors provide explicit consent before any non-essential cookies are placed on their devices. This includes analytics cookies such as Google Analytics.
- Ensure your cookie consent banner collects a valid consent: To meet GDPR consent standards, your cookie consent banner must allow website visitors to reject cookies as easily as it allows them to accept them. Eliminate any designs that nudge users toward accepting all cookies and provide clear, easily accessed rejection options.
- Audit your cookie use, consent banner and cookie policy: Review your use of cookies and make sure all uses are validly consented and explained clearly to website visitors.
For further help, see the ICO guidance on cookies.
Get in touch
The recent ICO actions serve as a critical reminder for businesses to ensure their cookie policies are not only compliant but transparent and user-friendly. With increased scrutiny ahead, now is the time to take proactive steps in revisiting cookie consent practices. Please contact me on amanda.heath@thelegaldirector.co.uk if you would like my help implementing best practice in your business.
Image created by openart.ai.
