The French data protection Agency (CNIL) recently issued Guidelines on the use of cookies for advertising purposes. These Guidelines replace those, issued in 2013, which were no longer compliant with the GDPR (the continuation of the browsing was deemed an acceptance of the storage of the cookies if the data subject had been provided with the necessary information on a dedicated banner available on the home page of the website).

The new Guidelines clearly state that the consent of the data subject must be explicit (no presumption of consent when the data subject continues the web browsing) and the companies operating the cookies must keep evidence of such a consent.

 The CNIL initiated discussions with the adtech professionals to address with them how to implement the explicit consent in a pragmatic and friendly way. This should lead to the publication, in the first quarter of 2020, of a CNIL Recommendation providing for practical advice pertaining to the use of cookies for advertising purposes.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.