DATA

Cookies are clearly the flavour of the month for UK and European data protection enforcers. Supervisory authorities are now turning their attention to non-compliant websites... In November 2023, the ICO wrote to 53 of the UK's top 100 websites, instructing them to change their cookie practices or suffer the consequences. Not surprisingly, 38 companies had already complied by the end of January. Others are in the middle of putting things right, and some are working on alternative models (more on that from the ICO next month)... The ICO is now widening its cookie investigations and warning companies to make their cookies compliant. It is investing time, money, and resources to do so. For example, it is developing an AI solution to help find websites with non-compliant cookie banners. The ICO intends to work through websites which target UK users, focusing on cookie compliance by checking cookie usage, and rooting out non-compliant websites.