19.02.2021

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Why the annoying cookie notices?

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Permanent Cookies-Notices are annoying, but why are they legally necessary?

A ruling of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) of 28.05.2020 (Case No. I ZR 7/16)[1] has led to uncertainty among website operators with regard to the use of Cookies was conducted. One of the issues at stake in this concluded trial was the following question: Can the defendant provider of online competitions obtain an effective declaration of consent from its users to the use of cookies by ticking a box in the registration form beforehand? Cookies for advertising?

Der BGH verneint dies im konkreten Fall und urteilt, “dass der Anbieter Cookies to create user profiles for advertising or market research purposes only with the user's consent. The user's consent, which must be declared electronically, which allows the retrieval of information stored on their end device with the help of Cookies im Wege eines voreingestellten Ankreuzkästchens gestattet, genügt diesem Einwilligungserfordernis nicht.”

Website visitors must Cookies-Consent to use

It is significant that in the course of the proceedings, the BGH submitted a number of fundamental questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for assessment and then referred to the CJEU's opinion in this regard in its reasons for the judgement.

Even if the judgement itself only refers to advertising purposes Cookies The reasons for the judgement cited above give rise to the interpretation shared by most commentaries: Before using any services that are not necessary for the provision of the desired services, the court must Cookies effective consent must be obtained from the user by actively ticking a corresponding checkbox, for example.

Matomo can also be used without Cookies use

An important consequence of this interpretation is that, beyond all advertising-related personalisation, this also applies to the use of Cookies active user consent is required for web analysis with tools such as Google Analytics or Matomo.
Ein schlichter Hinweis auf die Cookie-Nutzung zum alternativlosen Wegklicken per “Ich bin einverstanden” reicht nicht mehr aus. Wer Matomo einsetzt kann an dieser Stelle in Betracht ziehen, die Analyse einfach ohne Cookies to run. Matomo is relatively easy to configure in this respect. Measured values based on the recognition of returning visitors tend to lose reliability, but are still available. Instead of the Cookies werden anonyme “Fingerabdrücke” der Nutzer anhand bestimmter Systemeigenschaften zu Wiedererkennung benutzt.

Der Vollständigkeit halber sei erwähnt, dass einzelne Quellen davon ausgehen, dass rechtlich gesehen dieses “Fingerprinting” genauso einwilligungspflichtig ist, wie der Einsatz von Analyse-Cookies3] A judicial assessment of this question is still pending.

In contrast to this, some argue[4] that the exclusive use of technically necessary Cookies and cookie-free Matomo analysis, any cookie consent can be completely dispensed with.

Effectively obtain permission if it cannot be waived:

A real market has quickly developed around the issue of cookie consent, in which various providers offer legally compliant processing of user information and consent, whereby the costs incurred differ greatly[5].
There is also a wide range of ready-made plug-in solutions for popular platforms such as WordPress or Contao[6].

The visible result basically corresponds to the following scheme for all offers:

Method A: Pop-UP with a direct selection of settings

  • Note text,
  • the visible checkboxes for the types of the used Cookies – Zum Beispiel “Notwendig” (bzw. “Erforderlich”, “Essenziell), “Werbezwecke”, “Statistik”, wobei die “Notwendigen” vorausgewählt sind,
  • Button “Auswahl akzeptieren”,
  • Button “Alle akzeptieren” (meist optisch hervorgehoben),
  • Links wie “Datenschutz”, “Impressum”, “weitere Informationen” etc.

Method B: Pop-up with detailed settings in the 2nd step

  • Note text,
  • Button “Alle akzeptieren”,
  • Button “Nur notwendige Cookies akzeptieren” (oder sinngemäß)
  • Button “Einstellungen anpassen”, der auf mehr oder weniger kompliziert aufgebaute Einstellungsseiten verweist,
  • Links wie “Datenschutz”, “Impressum”, “weitere Informationen” etc.

Method C: Pop-up with well-hidden detailed settings

  • Note text,
  • Button “Alle akzeptieren”,
  • Button “Einstellungen anpassen”, der auf mehr oder weniger kompliziert aufgebaute Einstellungsseiten verweist,
  • Links wie “Datenschutz”, “Impressum”, “weitere Informationen” etc.

Dies ein Überblick der Lösungen, die sich im Netz verbreitet haben. Ob jede davon oder die eine oder andere im besonderen Maße geeignet ist, sei es durch Klick auf “Alle akzeptieren” oder sonstige Benutzung, wirksame Einwilligungen im Lichte des zugrundeliegenden BGH-Urteils zu erwirken, würde sich letztlich nur in einem konkreten juristischen Verfahren erweisen, das bisher aussteht.

Sources

See also

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