§ Lord Lucasasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they are confident that the privacy in electronics communications directive will, in its final form, allow the use of cookies; and, if so, what restrictions they wish to see placed on their use. [HL2311]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville)The proposed Communications Data Protection and Privacy Directive, which is currently under negotiation, is subject to the co-decision procedure and must be agreed by both the European Parliament and the European Council before it can be adopted.
At its first reading last year, the European Parliament proposed the introduction of a requirement on website operators not to use cookies without the prior consent of the website user. At the December 2001 Telecoms Council, member states and the Commission agreed on an alternative approach under which website operators would instead be required to give users prior information and an opportunity to refuse cookies.
The Government support this second approach, which we believe is consistent with existing data protection controls and examples of good practice developed within the industry. The new text will now be put to the European Parliament.