Who isn’t familiar with this? Before you can learn about the latest developments in politics online or view the current offers in the web shop, you are asked to accept or reject the use of tracking and analysis cookies.
New law on the use of cookies
Due to the conspicuous design of the cookie banner, users usually click on “Accept” in order to move quickly on to obtaining the desired information on the website. This means that, in practice, the original purpose of cookie banners, i.e. making an informed and free decision about the data processing relating to user behaviour, falls short of its objective.
In order to solve this problem, the legislator has introduced the new Telecommunications Telemedia Data Protection Act (TTDSG). This takes a new approach to regulating the use of cookies on websites.
The Telecommunications Telemedia Data Protection Act simplifies the handling of cookies for users
The act came into force on December 01, 2021 and allows for the use of consent management systems, known as Personal Information Management Systems (PIMS). With PIMS, the user should be able to determine from the outset whether, for example, they generally approve or reject the use of tracking tools for marketing purposes or they only accept them selectively for certain websites. The prespecified selection is stored on the user’s terminal device and subsequently retrieved by the websites and browsers visited.
The advantage of PIMS is that users can make a blanket decision for a large number of websites as to whether tracking technologies should be used. Thus, the user no longer needs to decide this for each individual website as was previously the case.
Loss of sales due to PIMS?
Conversely, this means that it will be more difficult for advertisers to analyse the user behaviour of website visitors in order to control personalised online advertising. Whether the feared loss of revenue in the advertising industry is an actual threat will only become clear with the practical introduction of PIMS and to what extent these systems will be accepted by users. Moreover, the concrete design of the PIMS is still the subject of discussion.
Advice on the use of cookies
What is clear, however, is that there will be other innovations to monitor. Our specialist lawyers will be happy to advise you on all aspects relating to the use of cookies on your website.
Continue Reading:
German Privacy Law
Cookie Permissions Must Be Actively Ticked in Germany
