 GrepLaw |
|
|
|
This site is a production of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Please email if you have questions, contributions, or ideas about improving this site.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Cookie Regulation in Force in Sweden
|
|
|
|
posted by mpawlo
on Friday July 25, @03:35AM
from the privacy-vs-practical dept.
|
|
|
|
|
Today, July 25, 2003, the Electronic Communication Act ("the Act") enters into force. A practical effect of the Act is that the use of cookies, that is local data files storaging information about a certain user and browser, will be regulated (the Act, chapter 6, clause 18, based on Article 5.3 in the EU communications directive).
|
|
|
|
|
|
The user shall be provided with the opportunity to decline the use of cookies during the web site visit ("current session"). The Act does state that the user must accept cookies, provided that so called "normal request routines" are used when the cookie is set and provided that the user may turn off cookies in his web browser.
If the user accesses a web service depending on cookies and the storage of information with the user's client, such as an online banking service, the use of cookies is always accepted according to the Act. Caching necessary from a technical perspective or to otherwise make the transfer of information easier is also acceptable.
The legal situation is ambiguous when it comes to what kind of services should be deemed "depending" on information storaged with the user's client. The legal situation is also hard to intrepret when it comes to exactly how a certain acceptance of cookies shall be made.
The guardian authority of the Act, PTS, has an rather extensive acceptance procedure at its website, but such contract forming procedure to accept cookies has no direct bearing in the Act or in the EU directive.
If PTS discovers a web site not in compliance with the Act, PTS will demand that the web site correct the errors within a month. Should the web site not correct the errors, PTS will issue an injunction combined with a penalty.
More reading on cookies in Sweden at the Swedish government's e-forum (in Swedish).
|
|
|
|
< FCC sets deadline and rules for CIPA Compliance
| Sys Admin Day >
| |
|
