How does the ECJ's decision on cookies affect your website?

1. How does the ECJ's decision on cookies affect your website? Cookies are essentially small memory files that personalize your browsing experience on a particular website. These files can make it easier for you to access the secure areas of the website or enable a web shop to store your items in the shopping cart, etc. Certain cookies also specialize in collecting behavioral data for targeted advertising. These cookies raise a lot of privacy concerns for users and therefore the latest EU ruling aims to regulate them. Please note, with regard to your website design, that previously marked consent to cookies is not permitted under EU law At the end of 2019, the European Court of Justice gave Internet users the power to actively consent to the use of web IDs such as cookies. It is an amendment to the EU cookie law from 2002, which ensured the user's consent to cookies. However, the mild interpretation of the 2002 law made it difficult for the user to access the privacy policy. Without exception, they would agree without actively controlling the consequences

2. What does this mean for your website design? The websites of EU businesses or EU target groups must actively ensure the following as soon as the user logs in to or visits the website: •- Are you actively receiving user consent to the use of cookies? •- Do you allow users to access the website even if they reject the cookie policy? •- Do you have a transparent mechanism that allows users to withdraw their consent to the use of cookies? •- No pre-ticked boxes are required and users have to manually select the type of cookies they want to save? If you can answer yes to these questions, then your internet agency has done its job right. If you answered no to just one question, you should contact Bulldog Design. The following image shows an example of what your cookie statement should look like. Bulldog Design ensures that your website design is fully compliant with EU data protection laws. Ask our team to guide you through other web solutions for your business.

3. A short timeline The EU Cookie Act of 2002 was ahead of its time as a law to ensure fair use and storage of user data by the company over the Internet. A decade later, the Planet49 2013 case concerned a German consumer organization that alleged illegal consequences of the previously ticked use of third-party cookies for targeted advertising. They argued that the authorization did not include explicit consent from the user. With the passing of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018 - the most comprehensive law to protect the privacy of users - companies are legally obliged to inform users about how their personal data is recorded. When the service providers read the recent judgment and the GDPR together, they must also inform their users about how long the cookies would work and whether third parties would have access to the data collected. Swell: 1. https://gdpr.eu/cookies/ 2. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-court-cookies/internet-users-must-actively-consent-to- use-of-cookies-eu-court-rules-idUSKBN1WG3NF