Sky Bet has been reprimanded by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) which said the site was unlawfully processing people’s data using advertising cookies without their consent.
The ICO said Sky Bet was processing people’s personal information and sharing it with advertising technology companies as soon as they accessed the website – before they were given the chance to accept or reject cookies.
This meant personalised advertising could be targeted towards them without their knowledge or consent, the ICO said.
This was going on between 10 January and 3 March 2023.
The ICO decided there had been no deliberate misuse of data but that Sky Bet’s use of certain cookies was “not lawful, transparent or fair”. The regulator has the power to issue fines but on this occasion has just decided to issue a reprimand.
Sky Bet is owned by Flutter Entertainment subsidiary Sky Betting and Gaming, which licenses the Sky brand.
Stephen Bonner, deputy commissioner at the ICO, said: “Our enforcement action against Sky Betting and Gaming is a warning that there will be consequences if organisations breach the law, and people are denied the choice over targeted advertising.”
In November the ICO began a crackdown on the compliant use of advertising cookies for the UK’s top 100 websites. Publishers were told that users must be able to “reject all” cookies “as easily” as they can “accept all”.
The ICO was also looking at whether non-essential advertising cookies were being placed before users had the chance to give consent, and whether they were placed even if the user rejected their use.
The watchdog then issued a final warning to 53 of those sites to tell them they faced enforcement action unless they made changes to comply with data protection law.
The ICO has now revealed that of those, only one website – gossip forum Tattle Life – has not engaged with the warning and will now be investigated over its use of cookies.
Some of the top websites have since begun to introduce a “consent or pay” model, which means users are asked to accept all cookie tracking or pay to opt out. Prices currently range between The Times on £6.99 and the Mirror and Express on £1.99 each. Publishers had feared if it as easy for users to reject cookies, they would overwhelmingly do so and therefore crucial advertising revenue based on the most highly-monetisable tracked audience would be lost.
Bonner said: “I’m pleased to see changes being made as a result of our intervention, with 99 of the top 100 websites either already offering a meaningful choice over advertising cookies or making improvements to gain people’s consent. For example, some have now included a ‘reject all’ button and others have made their ‘accept all’ and ‘reject all’ options equally prominent, meaning it is just as easy to reject cookies as it is to accept them.
“These changes mean that people have more agency over how their personal information is used online. Others have started to introduce alternative methods to obtain consent, such as ‘consent or pay’ – a business model we are currently reviewing.”
The ICO will soon begin scrutinising the use of cookies at the next 100 biggest websites, Bonner added.
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