SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next question:
TripBliss Inc. is a travel service company which has lost substantial revenue over the last few years. Their new manager, Oliver, suspects that this is partly due to the company's outdated website. After doing some research, he meets with a sales representative from the up-and-coming IT company
Techiva, hoping that they can design a new, cutting-edge website for TripBliss Inc.'s foundering business.
During negotiations, a Techiva representative describes a plan for gathering more customer information through detailed Questionaires, which could be used to tailor their preferences to specific travel destinations. TripBliss Inc. can choose any number of data categories age, income, ethnicity that would help them best accomplish their goals. Oliver loves this idea, but would also like to have some way of gauging how successful this approach is, especially since the Questionaires will require customers to provide explicit consent to having their data collected. The Techiva representative suggests that they also run a program to analyze the new website's traffic, in order to get a better understanding of how customers are using it. He explains his plan to place a number of cookies on customer devices. The cookies will allow the company to collect IP addresses and other information, such as the sites from which the customers came, how much time they spend on the TripBliss Inc. website, and which pages on the site they visit. All of this information will be compiled in log files, which Techiva will analyze by means of a special program. TripBliss Inc. would receive aggregate statistics to help them evaluate the website's effectiveness. Oliver enthusiastically engages Techiva for these services.
Techiva assigns the analytics portion of the project to longtime account manager Leon Santos. As is standard practice, Leon is given administrator rights to TripBliss Inc.'s website, and can authorize access to the log files gathered from it. Unfortunately for TripBliss Inc., however, Leon is taking on this new project at a time when his dissatisfaction with Techiva is at a high point. In order to take revenge for what he feels has been unfair treatment at the hands of the company, Leon asks his friend Fred, a hobby hacker, for help. Together they come up with the following plan: Fred will hack into Techiva's system and copy their log files onto a USB stick. Despite his initial intention to send the USB to the press and to the data protection authority in order to denounce Techiva, Leon experiences a crisis of conscience and ends up reconsidering his plan. He decides instead to securely wipe all the data from the USB stick and inform his manager that the company's system of access control must be reconsidered.
With regard to TripBliss Inc.'s use of website cookies, which of the following statements is correct?
- Because not all of the cookies are strictly necessary to enable the use of a service requested from TripBliss Inc., consent requirements apply to their use of cookies.
- Because of the categories of data involved, explicit consent for the use of cookies must be obtained separately from customers.
- Because Techiva will receive only aggregate statistics of data collected from the cookies, no additional consent is necessary.
- Because the use of cookies involves the potential for location tracking, explicit consent must be obtained from customers.
Answer(s): A
Explanation:
According to the ePrivacy Directive (2002/58/EC), the use of cookies or similar devices that store or access information on the user's device requires the user's consent, unless the cookie is strictly necessary to enable the use of a service requested by the user. For example, a cookie that remembers the items in a shopping cart does not require consent, but a cookie that tracks the user's browsing behavior for analytics or advertising purposes does. The consent must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous, and can be obtained through appropriate settings of the browser or other application. The consent must also be separate from other consents, such as the consent to the processing of personal data. The categories of data involved or the recipients of the data do not affect the consent requirement for the use of cookies. The consent must also be obtained before the cookie is placed or accessed, unless the cookie is exempted. Therefore, option A is correct.
Option B is incorrect because explicit consent is not required for the use of cookies, unless the cookie also involves the processing of special categories of personal data under the GDPR. However, in this scenario, there is no indication that the cookies collect or process such data. Therefore, option B is incorrect.
Option C is incorrect because the consent requirement for the use of cookies does not depend on the recipients of the data or the level of aggregation of the data. The consent must be obtained from the user whose device is accessed or stored by the cookie, regardless of who receives the data or how it is processed. Therefore, option C is incorrect.
Option D is incorrect because the consent requirement for the use of cookies does not depend on the potential for location tracking. The consent must be obtained for any cookie that is not strictly necessary to enable the use of a service requested by the user, regardless of the type or purpose of the cookie. Therefore, option D is incorrect.
Reference:
ePrivacy Directive, Article 5(3)
GDPR, Article 4(11), Article 7, Article 9
CIPP/E Study Guide, Chapter 5, Section 5.2.2
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