French Privacy Watchdog Seeks to Keep Track of Online Cookies

(Bloomberg) --

France’s privacy watchdog drafted guidelines for the proper use of online tracking tools in the wake of a series of complaints about companies’ use of people’s online data for advertising and marketing purposes without consent.

CNIL, France’s data protection authority, published the draft guidelines Tuesday as part of an action plan to help better protect users’ privacy against the unjustified use of their data. Companies have until Feb. 25 to comment on the draft which will then be finalized and lead to a six-month period for companies to adapt to the new measures.

Online profiling for advertising purposes “can be massive and perceived as intrusive,” CNIL said in a statement, adding that it has received numerous complaints, including by privacy activists such as La Quadrature du Net and Noyb.

The two groups have brought a number of cases since the European Union’s new privacy law took effect, expanding regulators’ investigative powers and allowing them for the first time to levy fines of as much as 4% of a company’s global annual sales for the most serious violations.

--With assistance from Helene Fouquet.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Bodoni in Luxembourg at sbodoni@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Peter Chapman

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