Ger­man data pro­tec­tion aut­ho­ri­ties review coo­kie track­ing by news­pa­per publishers

Ten sta­te data pro­tec­tion com­mis­sio­ners want to stop coo­kie track­ing on Ger­man news­pa­per publishers’ web­sites exten­si­ve­ly test. The media com­pa­nies con­cer­ned are now recei­ving a que­sti­on­n­aire with which the data pro­tec­tion aut­ho­ri­ties want to find out whe­ther the coo­kie ban­ners used meet the requi­re­ments of the Euro­pean Gene­ral Data Pro­tec­tion Regu­la­ti­on (GDPR) and whe­ther web­site visi­tors are actual­ly making a vol­un­t­a­ry and infor­med choice. Accor­ding to the aut­ho­ri­ties, it is most­ly unclear what the data pro­files are used for by various com­pa­nies (such as social net­works or adver­ti­sing ser­vice providers).

The Ger­man Fede­ral Court of Justi­ce had ruled in its Judgment from 28 May 2020 first ruled that a pre-set check­box to be sel­ec­ted by the web­site visi­tor does not con­sti­tu­te effec­ti­ve con­sent to the use of coo­kies for adver­ti­sing purposes.