Cookie fatigue: The questions facing the EU Commission initiative

The European Commission wants to discuss with stakeholders how to improve consumer awareness of online tracking and alternatives to tracking-based advertising as part of its exercise to reach a voluntary pledge to phase out cookies before the year’s end.

As anticipated by EURACTIV, on 28 March, EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders announced the launch of a voluntary initiative to address the growing ‘cookie fatigue’ of internet users, namely the fact of having to continuously consent or refuse the processing of their data when landing on a website.

As such, the European Commission’s consumer protection department is organising a series of roundtable discussions with stakeholders like publishers, advertisers, AdTech companies, digital platforms and consumer protection. The first roundtable will take place on 28 April.

“The objective would be to propose simpler choices of advertising models to consumers, respecting, if this is so, their wish not to be tracked, and provide alternative methods for the personalisation of advertising in exchange of continued free of monetary payment content,” reads the discussion note for the roundtable, seen by EURACTIV.

In an interview with EURACTIV in December, Reynders anticipated that he sees voluntary initiatives as a way to prepare the ground for binding rules.

Cookies are pieces of code that websites place on a user’s web browser that can be retrieved later, for instance, to tell the website that the user has returned to the page. Cookies are regulated under the ePrivacy Directive, and they are used to collect consent for processing personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

“The current cookie consent mechanisms can however be very complex: with cookie banners popping up every time users visit a new website,” the document continues, “and with choices often presented in a confusing way which does not allow users to make a fully informed decision or drives them to make choices they would otherwise not necessarily have made.”

The Commission considers that many people are tired of these complex cookie banners and just give up on expressing their privacy preferences.

Moreover, the EU consumer department considers that the heavy use of advertising trackers via cookies raises several privacy concerns, targeted advertising efficiency and lost consumer trust, pointing to research suggesting users do not want to be tracked.

“However, this does not mean that consumers would be against personalised advertising, as they want to continue benefiting from free of monetary payment online content and relevant ads. Personalisation, therefore, needs to be more respectful of their privacy aspirations,” the note added.

Allowing consumers to make an informed decision is a significant part of the discussion. The Commission wants to give users more transparent information on the commercial context where they would be subject to tracking-based advertising and with what privacy implications.

Therefore, stakeholders will be asked how they think the information on the business model and personal data collection can be presented upfront and transparent and how it could interact with the transparency obligations under the GDPR and ePrivacy Directive.

A specific case is raised on marketplaces, as they would have to explain how their advertising activities are carried out in addition to their primary business model.

Another question is how consumers can be comprehensively and understandably informed about the privacy implication of their choice, avoiding an ‘information overload’.

A critical point relates to whether web browsers or apps could be used to centralise the consumers’ choice regarding the business model rather than being asked each time someone visits a website.

This proposal is not new and is somewhat controversial as the world’s largest advertising company, Google, owns the most popular web browser, Chrome.

The other central strand of the discussion regards possible alternatives to tracking-based advertising that would still provide relevant ads with less intrusive personalisation solutions that would remove the need for cookies and similar technologies.

In this regard, the Commission wonders what performance criteria should be used to assess whether the alternative solutions allow publishers and AdTech intermediaries to offer comparably ‘attractive’ ads to advertisers and consumers.

In addition, stakeholders will be asked what type of information or user profiles would be needed to provide a meaningful alternative to personalised ads.

In terms of providing automated solutions, one idea on the table is to provide consumers with the possibility of choosing alternatives to track-based ads as the default options in the settings of their web browsers.

“Technically what do the different alternatives mean in terms of browser and operating systems settings or implications on other technical questions? Are there solutions to non-tracking based targeted advertising that are independent of browsers and operating systems?” the note asks.

A final question concerns the trackers used to improve websites’ performance and measure advertising performance. The EU executive is trying to understand what data would still need to be collected for this purpose and what would be a more privacy-friendly approach.

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]

EU Approves Microsoft's Activision Acquisition, But Big Questions Still Remain

Microsoft's bid to get the green light for its Activision Blizzard deal was blocked in the UK barely a few weeks ago. One of the key arguments behind the decision was that the deal would give Microsoft an unfair advantage in the gaming segment, especially in the cloud gaming department. Microsoft's cloud gaming service has a fairly wide reach and all of it is tied to the Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

However, industry titans like Valve, Nvidia, Steam, and even Amazon are in the game. Sony, on the other hand, also has a fairly popular game subscription service in its portfolio under the PlayStation brand. The European Commission's approval notes address those exclusivity concerns, too. The agency notes that "Microsoft would have no incentive to refuse to distribute Activision's games to Sony, which is the leading distributor of console games." 

It also cites the lopsided leadership that Sony enjoys in the market when it comes to the sale of PlayStation consoles against Microsoft's Xbox series machines. But not everything is rosy for Microsoft. The European Union says, following its lengthy exam, that Microsoft can harm the competition if it limits the cloud-based game streaming of Activision Blizzard games to its own platform in the future. On the PC gaming side of things, the regulatory body says locking the games to its Windows ecosystem, or degrading the experience on rival platforms would mean Microsoft "could strengthen the position of Windows in the market for PC operating systems."

Eight EU countries urge “real action” from Brazil to combat deforestation

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A group of eight European countries urged Brazil to take “real action” to combat rising deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, which is threatening Europe’s desire to source food and other products sustainably.

Brazil’s Vice President Hamilton Mourao, who leads the Brazilian government’s Amazon conservation efforts, on Wednesday, responded that the call was part of a European protectionist strategy.

European politicians and investors have mounted pressure on Brazil to step up environmental protection as deforestation rises and the two sides (EU and Mercosur) attempt to finalize a free trade deal agreed to in principle last year.

The group of countries called the Amsterdam Declarations Partnership, currently led by Germany, sent an open letter to Mourao late on Tuesday expressing concerns that Brazil is backsliding on its formerly strong record on environmental protection.

“While European efforts are aiming at achieving deforestation-free supply chains, the current trend of rising deforestation in Brazil is making it increasingly difficult for businesses and investors to meet their environmental, social and governance criteria,” the two-page letter said.

“The countries meeting under the Amsterdam Declarations Partnership would expect a renewed and firm political commitment from the Brazilian government to reduce deforestation being reflected in current and real action.”

Mourao said Brazil’s foreign ministry would talk to the German ambassador and organize a broader meeting with representatives of the other countries if necessary.

“This has nothing to do with investors. ... You have to understand this is part of a trade strategy of European countries,” he told reporters outside his office.

“This is a barrier. There are tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers.”

The Amsterdam Declarations Partnership, which aims to supply Europe with deforestation-free commodities, includes Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. Belgium, which is not a partnership member, also is a party to the letter.

The letter praised Brazil’s past actions to preserve the environment, but noted “deforestation has increased at alarming rates” recently. The countries said they are ready to intensify dialogue with Brazil on the subject.