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Cookies and identifier status: long-standing debates and CJEU clarity

Invoking a new CJEU decision in ongoing proceedings shortly after it has come out? Super! Even better when it confirms what you have been saying for years. I actually had a strong disagreement with an eminent data protection lawyer nearly a decade ago on this particular topic, during a discussion on the nature of cookies […]

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Inside the RAID panel debate with the EDPB Chair and national DPAs

Fun day! After moderating a RAID panel with as panelists EDPB Chair Anu Talus, Luxembourg CNPD President Tine A. Larsen, Deputy Head of Data Protection Unit at the Commission’s DG Justice Karolina Mojzesowicz, MEP Brando Benifei and Gibson Dunn Partner Ahmed Baladi, I then was a speaker in a debate alongside Max Schrems of noyb.eu, […]

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EU Commission exploring pragmatic ePrivacy consent exemptions

Cookies: EU Commission considering more pragmatism for ePrivacy – perhaps there is hope for useful legislative changes. The Commission is holding discussions next week to gather input from civil society and industry regarding the possibility of clarifying consent exemptions under Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. As readers may know, I have often written about […]

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Podcast: SRB judgment implications for the AdTech ecosystem

data protection podcast alert: SRB judgment implications, notably for the adtech / martech world & broader digital ecosystem. Topics: pseudonymisation, processor/controller, “singling out” versus “identification”, “outside GDPR” ≠ “free for all”, data clean rooms, and more. Listen to my discussion with Sergio Maldonado on his Masters of Privacy podcast – available through your favourite podcast […]

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ICO online advertising consultation: the case for PETs and flexibility

One month into the summer consultation process (thanks EU Commission & others!), a few thoughts on the ICO’s online advertising consultation. There is still one month to respond to the “call for views” from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (soon “Information Commission”) regarding its approach to regulating online advertising: https://lnkd.in/evScibNJ I cannot stress enough the […]

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Digital Fairness Act: balancing consumer protection and innovation

So the Digital Fairness Act consultation process begins, with lofty yet potentially flawed goals. The Commissions wishes to notably: – “[prevent] traders from using dark patterns and other unfair techniques that pressure, deceive and manipulate consumers online – “[address] problematic personalisation practices, including situations where consumer vulnerabilities are targeted for the purposes of personalised advertising […]

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The Hamburg DPA aligns on tracking tokens and behavioral identification

Glad to see the Hamburg DPA going in a similar direction as what I was suggesting in the post below: tokens should not be viewed as personal data. Even at the level of the output, “the mere presence of plausible personal information in LLM output is not conclusive evidence that personal data has been memorized, […]

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ePrivacy precedent: critiquing the CJEU’s interpretation of spam

One to watch. Based on the summary of the hearing, this looks like a continuation of the CNIL’s Orange decision and of the CJEU’s SwTL v eprimo case – if so, I fear we are going down a path of bad legal precedent after bad legal precedent. As I have previously commented, the eprimo judgment […]

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WhatsApp advertising updates: dispelling myths and ePrivacy realities

Many myths and exaggerations in reactions to WhatsApp’s announcement re ads. From “everything I mention in chats is used for ads” (that’s not how digital advertising works, and Meta had even made it clear message content is never used) to “all your Instagram and Facebook data is used” (while the WhatsApp announcement suggests this only […]

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The unworkability of consent for anti-fraud measures

*facepalm* Anti-fraud measures require consent in the context of e-mail tracking? “Thanks a lot”, regulated industries will say, as there are many sectors where anti-fraud measures are *required by law*. Even in industries where this isn’t the case, requiring consent for anti-fraud defeats their very purpose. Really, which fraudster will consent to the use of […]

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