Tracking Cookies in the European Union, an Empirical Analysis of the Current Situation

Abstract

Tracking is a pervasive mechanism across the web which is capable to trace and collect users’ online data. One of the most widely used mechanisms for tracking are cookies, and they are used to deliver online behavioral advertisement. Since these mechanisms pose a threat to privacy, the E-Privacy Directive was created as the regional legal instrument to pay special attention to this issue in the European Union. Now, we are at a crucial moment, there is a discussion to replace the E-Privacy Directive for the called E-Privacy Regulation. However, the nature of privacy policies is complex, and there is an ongoing debate about how the E-Privacy Regulation needs to be implemented or what elements should entail. This master thesis project sought to provide empirical evidence for this debate. Our findings emphasize the need to promote harmonization of the provisions of the E-Privacy Directive in member states, especially on consent and guidance. Also, our work revealed that businesses’ incentives play an important role in explaining the variability of tracking presence. Hence, this suggests that understanding the “parsimonious” factor of businesses’ incentives can be considered by policy-makers to commence an important debate and re-solve the privacy problem.