On 30 January 2018, a new draft of the European Council for the ePrivacy Regulation was released, containing five options, on which the Presidency seeks the views from delegations:
- Option 0: retaining the text as proposed in doc. 15333/17.
- Option 1: whether it is needed to extend the current list of exceptions to consent, based on their function/goal, by inclusion of more non-privacy intrusive purposes.
- Option 2: a new harm based approach in this provision e.g., by differentiating cookies and similar techniques by the level of their harm.
- Option 3: whether recognizing the legitimate interests for cookies / similar techniques whose function is to deliver targeted advertisement coupled with the right of object would be an appropriate standard to legitimize processing.
- Option 4: whether it is needed to explicitly address in the text access to a service in the absence of consent to process information (prohibition of coupling).
- Option 5: any other solution.
This statement shows that the European Council would like to continue the discussion on the consent for cookies in detail and sees various alternatives as possible solutions, including extreme positions as well as compromises.