On the 3 July 2019, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published updated guidance on the use of cookies and other similar technologies (the Guidance). The Guidance is intended to provide clarity and certainty on how organisations should comply with the laws around the use of cookies in an online environment.

The updated guidance comes only a few weeks after the ICO issued an update report on Adtech (the Adtech report) which is primarily focused on the practice of real time bidding in the adtech industry which is heavily reliant on the use of cookies. Furthermore, just a day after the ICO issued the Guidance, the French data protection authority, the CNIL, also adopted guidelines on cookies and other tracking devices (the “CNIL Guidance”) making this summer a very busy time in the world of cookies.