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Hold-outs targeted in batch of EU cookie consent complaints – TechCrunch:

Just over a year after launching a major project targeting thousands of sites blatantly flouting cookie tracking rules in Europe, local privacy campaign group noyb has fired off another batch of complaints targeting a hardcore of website operators that it says have ignored or not fully acted upon earlier warnings to bring their cookie consent banners into compliance with the EU's legal standard for consent, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Noyb says the latest batch of 226 complaints have been lodged with 18 data protection authorities (DPAs) around the bloc.

As with earlier actions by noyb, all the complaints relate to the most widely used cookie banner software, made by OneTrust. But it's not the software itself that's the issue — rather the complaints target deceptive settings it found being applied. Or even no choice at all being offered to site users to deny tracking in a clear breach of the law around consent.

Deceptive cookie pop-ups have had a corrosive impact not only on the privacy rights of web users in the region, systemically stripping people of their right to protect their information, but they have also been very damaging for the reputation of EU data protection rules like the GDPR — enabling critics to blame the regulation for spawning a tsunami of annoying cookie banners despite the fact the law clearly outlaws consent theft via cynical tactics like injecting one-way friction or offering users zero opt-out 'choice'.

The vast scale of cookie consent violations has, nonetheless, posed a major enforcement challenge for the bloc's network of under-resourced data protection authorities — hence noyb stepping in with a smart and strategic approach to help clean up the "cookie banner terror" scourge, as its campaign couches it.

Given noyb's focus on impact, and the extremely widespread nature of cookie consent problems, the campaign group has sought to minimize how many formal complaints it's filing with regulators — so its partially automated compliance campaign entails sending initial complaints to the offending sites in question, offering help to rectify whatever dark patterns (or other bogus consent issues) noyb has identified.

It's only sites that have repeatedly ignored these nudges and step-by-step compliance guidance that are being targeted for formal complaints with the relevant oversight body now.

"We want to ensure compliance, ideally without filing cases. If a company however continues to violate the law, we are ready to enforce users' rights," said Max Schrems, chairman at noyb, in a statement.

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