DPAs publishes guidance on cookies and personal data protection
Tuesday, December 27th, 2022
On October 18, the Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) published a guidance about cookies and personal data protection. In the guide, the ANPD formalized its position and indicated good practice measures for the use of this technology by treatment agents.
The guide starts by conceptualizing and classifying cookies, demonstrating their relationship with personal data. Next, it explores some legal aspects that must be observed while using cookies, especially regarding the rights of the data subjects and the applicable legal basis for data processing.
About the rights of data subjects, there are in the guide: (i) easy and transparent access to information about the personal data collected; (ii) the indication of legitimate and specific purposes; (iii) limiting the collected data to the minimum necessary for the intended purposes; (iv) the possibility of objecting to the processing of the data; (v) retention of the data for a specified time; among others.
Regarding the applicable legal basis, the ANPD highlights the consent and the legitimate interest as the applicable legal basis, although it recognizes that others may apply, depending on the context.
Finally, the guide provides subsidies for the creation of policies and warning banners about cookies on the websites, informing that such documents should be clear and provide free choice options to the users (when applicable). It is necessary to take into account that these fundamental tools for complying with the principle of transparency and the demonstration of diligence, both provided by General Data Protection Law (GDPL).
The measures set out in the guide don’t have the nature of law, and the compliance with them is optional. However, it’s implementation can be interpreted as a diligent act of by the data processing agent, serving as a mitigating factor in any penalties that it may suffer.
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