D66, one of the original proponents of the controversial cookie legislation, wants to relax it so that more cookies can be placed without consent. On Wednesday, Member of Parliament Kees Verhoeven from D66 will submit a proposal. According to Verhoeven, the law should include a definition for a third category of cookies that can be automatically placed without consent. That is what he says to NU.nl. The statements follow dissatisfaction among companies regarding the cookie legislation. In an interview with Tweakers, Verhoeven states that consent must be requested when creating a profile of users for commercial purposes: in that case, permission must be sought. Also, if data is shared with third parties, consent is, in Verhoeven's view, required.
This would mean that tracking visitors via analytics software such as Google Analytics could be allowed, provided site administrators do not share the statistics with Google. "That is simply an option you can enable in Analytics," says Verhoeven. Also, for third-party cookies, Verhoeven believes that consent must still be requested.
Verhoeven states that after the introduction of the cookie legislation, he spoke with many internet companies. "Some companies do not agree that they must ask for consent for third-party cookies. That is a political disagreement: we believe online privacy outweighs commercial interests." But, he also says: "Many parties simply want to collect statistics on their own site." This is therefore allowed according to D66.
Whether the Member of Parliament will receive much support is still unclear. On Wednesday evening, the House of Representatives will hold a general discussion on telecommunications; it will then become clear which part of the House supports Verhoeven's proposal. The VVD is critical of the cookie legislation, but coalition partner PvdA was actually a strong proponent of it.
