France recently fined Alphabet Inc’s Google $169 million and Meta Platform’s Facebook $67 million on grounds that the companies violated the EU e-Privacy directive (aka the EU “Cookie Law”) by requiring too many “clicks” for users to reject cookies. The result was that many users just accepted the cookies, thus allowing the identifiers to track
The question is – do wiretapping statutes apply in cases where there is no traditional third party interceptor? And more practically speaking, how does an entity using plug-ins and cookies avoid liability under wiretapping statutes while there is so much uncertainty in the law?
We previously blogged about this issue In re: Facebook, Inc. Internet
Are targeted ads the result of wiretapping? Companies track your browsing history all the time through the use of, inter alia, cookies, and then mine the data they receive for purposes like targeted advertising. Because the cookies make the users computer send electronic communications without the users’ knowledge is this wiretapping?
Put differently, can a
Since the GDPR went into effect in May 2018, there’s been a noticeable surge in the display of cookie consent notices (or cookie banners), with large variations in text, the choices presented to users, and even the position of the notice on the webpage.
But how are users actually interacting with these cookie banners, if