Google will soon allow European users to easily refuse cookies

Google has shared details about a new cookie wall for European users, which should make it easier to refuse cookies on services such as Google Search and YouTube. The cookiewall will first come out in France and later to the rest of Europe.

Google writes in a blog post that it has ‘completely revised’ its cookie wall. The company is doing this after pressure from privacy regulators from various European member states, who have tightened their guidelines for cookie walls over the past year. The new cookie wall will be rolled out in France first and will be available later in the entire European Economic Area and countries such as the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

According to the tech giant, the new cookie wall will therefore be introduced ‘soon’ at Google Search and YouTube. It will be displayed to users who are not logged in to those services and to users who access the websites through the incognito mode of their browser. The cookie wall contains information about the cookies used and is given ‘Accept All’ and ‘Reject All’ buttons that allow users to easily allow or reject cookies.

The company says it has worked with European privacy regulators to comply with the cookie requirements. Google says, among other things, that it has specifically collaborated with the French privacy regulator CNIL. That authority said in January it would fine Google 150 million euros for not offering the option to easily refuse cookies on its services. Google and Facebook were given three months to adjust their cookie walls. Google expects the new cookie wall to meet the requirements of the CNIL.

Google’s new European cookie wall