Google’s Simpler Way For Europeans To Reject Cookies Starts Rolling Out
Google has developed a feature that gives users of its search engine and YouTube in Europe a new cookie choice — one they can accept or reject with one click while signed out or in the Incognito Mode.
Based on conversations and specific direction from France’s Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), Google has completed a redesign of its approach to opting out, including changes to the infrastructure we use to handle cookies, according to Sammit Adhya, product manager of privacy, safety and security at Google.
The update — which began rolling out earlier this month on YouTube — will provide site visitors and users with a “Reject all” and an “Accept all” button on the first screen in the user’s preferred language. The button also is customizable with details in “More options.”
The launch kicked off in France, with the rest of the European Economic Area, the U.K. and Switzerland to come.
Visitors signed out or in Incognito Mode will see a choice to either reject or accept all cookies via buttons. A third option offers more options, allows users to customize their choices.
Adhya explained in the post that Google developers needed to reengineer the way cookies work on Google sites. It required major changes to critical infrastructure. Changes that not only impact Search and YouTube, but also the sites and content creators using them to help grow their businesses and make a living.
Earlier this year, the French data privacy watchdog CNIL fined Google.fr 150 million euros. The company was given three months to develop and provide a simple way for users to refuse cookies.
“We believe this update responds to updated regulatory guidance and is aligned with our broader goal of helping build a more sustainable future for the web,” he wrote. “We’ve committed to building new privacy-preserving technologies in the Privacy Sandbox for the same reason.”
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