The Spanish Data Protection Authority (AEPD) recently released a comprehensive guide focused on audience measurement cookies. This essential resource (available in Spanish) clarifies the instances when these cookies can bypass the need for user consent.
What are Audience Measurement Cookies?
Audience measurement cookies are used primarily for gathering traffic and performance statistics on websites and applications. The Spanish Data Protection Authority (AEPD) released a comprehensive guide to emphasize their role in producing anonymous statistical data.
Exemption from Consent
These cookies can be exempted from user consent if they adhere to specific criteria:
- Purpose Limitation: The primary and exclusive objective should be to measure the audience of a site or application.
- No Data Comparison or Transmission: These cookies must not be used for comparing data with other processing operations or for transmitting data to third parties.
- No Aggregate Tracking: They should not enable the aggregate tracking of a user’s browsing habits across different applications or websites.
Cookies That Do Not Qualify for Exemption
The guide clearly specifies that analytics and audience measurement cookies, which are repurposed for other uses, do not qualify for the consent exemption.
List of Exempt Audience Measurement Cookies
The guide outlines a list of specific audience measurement cookies that are exempt from consent requirements. These include:
- Measurement of audience on a page-by-page basis.
- Tracking the origin of page requests, whether internal or external links.
- Determining device type, browser, and screen size of visitors.
- Gathering statistics on page load times, time spent on each page, user actions, and the geographical origin of requests.
Ensuring Compliance and Transparency
For cookies exempted from consent, the AEPD mandates the following guarantees:
- User Information: Users must be informed about the usage of exempt cookies, typically through the privacy policy or within a mobile app.
- Limited Usage Period: The cookies’ operational period should allow for a meaningful audience comparison over time, but must not be extended with each new visit.
- Data Retention: Collected information should be retained for a maximum of 25 months.
- Periodic Review: A regular review process should be in place to ensure that the retention period of cookies is limited to what is strictly necessary.
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