United Kingdom wants to make cookies opt-out instead of opt-in
The UK wants to amend its own implementation of the GDPR and remove the need to opt-in for cookies. For example, the country wants to combat ‘annoying cookie pop-ups and banners’. Instead, cookies should be opted out.
The United Kingdom is currently still following European GDPR legislation, but since leaving the European Union, the country has been working on its own implementation of that law. Friday made the United Kingdom some proposed changessuch as the need to always give permission for cookies.
At the moment, users still have to give permission per site before it can place cookies. However, the United Kingdom wants to introduce an opt-out model, whereby users can, for example, indicate via their browser settings whether or not cookies may be placed on sites. “As a result, people see a lot less frustrating cookie pop-ups,” said the British government.
Another change concerns the current obligation for small businesses to have a data protection officer; if it were up to the British government, that obligation should be abolished. “Then small businesses such as independent pharmacies will no longer have to take on FG to comply with the British GDPR, provided they can effectively limit risks themselves. Then they will no longer have to fill in unnecessary forms if there are few risks,” writes the British government.
Organizations are still obliged to have privacy management programs and remain responsible for how they handle personal data. “The same high data protection requirements remain, only organizations have more flexibility to determine how they meet them.” According to an analysis by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the changes presented Friday will save British companies £1 billion over a 10-year period.
The amendment to the law should also ensure that researchers can use data more easily, because it must be easier to describe when they can collect data and request permission for this. Scientists no longer need to be clear about the ultimate goal of their research project before collecting data. As a result, they should be able to use more data, because the British do not have to give more permission for specific investigations. Scientists who research cancer can then use data from people who have given consent with ‘cancer research’ as the processing reason, instead of that processing reason having to be a specific cancer research, the British government says.
The United Kingdom says it will maintain high data protection standards with the amended law, while data can be shared with ‘like-minded countries’. International data transfers can also be ‘improved’ with the amended law, for example data transfers for GPS navigation, smart home and streaming services. Such services can therefore be offered more reliably, cheaper and safer, according to the British government. The United States, Australia, South Korea and Singapore are mentioned as ‘priority countries’. The United Kingdom already said in August that it wanted to review the GDPR.