The Parliament’s Committee on Citizens’ Freedoms and Rights,
Justice and Home Affairs has said that a user should not be warned
in advance before a web site installs a cookie on his or her hard
drive. The Parliament has to decide how to address cookies as part
of legislation on data protection in the electronic communications
sector.
The European Council had favoured an approach that would
introduce a general requirement for web site operators to provide
prior information about the use of cookies before serving them to
the user's computer. It does not discriminate between different
types of cookie.
ZDNet quotes the Committee’s statement as follows:
"As regards the use of 'cookies', the
Committee concurred with the Council position that users should
have the right to refuse the installation of cookies, but it felt
that it would suffice to guarantee users the possibility of
accessing clear information on the purposes of cookies, thus
rejecting the Council's view that users should receive this
information in advance."
The apparent relaxation of the approach to cookies follows
intensive lobbying by advertising, employment, and various industry
groups which argued that the original proposal was unworkable and
threatened the competitiveness of European e-commerce. However, the
UK’s Information Commissioner has indicated that her office prefers
the hard-line approach to cookies.
