We are all used to seeing cookie warnings on websites. Sometimes they are well placed so they don’t hinder the user experience of the website, whilst other times they take ages to fully load so you can click ‘Accept’ and continue on with your original actions.
These cookie warnings are necessary to comply with EU’s data law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into force in 2018. The GDPR governs how individual’s personal information is collected, it is an EU regulation that has been criticised across the board for being too bureaucratic.
As you have probably guessed since the UK has left the European Union the UK Government has made it clear that they intend on peeling away from key elements of the EU’s data laws. The aim is to try and cut costs for businesses and to enable innovation, growth, and jobs.
However, the potential removal of all or parts of this regulation for our future outside of the EU could generate more tension with the EU and cause problems for those businesses that typically have visitors from inside and outside of the UK visiting their website.
Would businesses have to have a UK view for their website and an EU view for their website? Would businesses limit visitors from EU visiting their website? Would businesses keep the EU regulations on their website so that they comply with the EU rules and the watered-down UK rules? Only time will tell.
We certainly will be interested in reading the UK Government's proposed changes to the GDPR and seeing just how businesses will need to respond digitally.
Published: 15th Sep 2021