Information and consent for the use of cookies
More frequently asked questions
1. What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that the sites visited by users send to their terminals, where they are stored to be then transferred to the same sites at the next visit. The cookies of the "third parties" are, on the other hand, set by a website other than what the user is visiting. This is because on each site there are elements (images, maps, sounds, specific links to web pages of other domains, etc.) that reside on servers other than that of the site visited.
2. What are cookies for?
Cookies are used for different purposes: execution of computer authentications, monitoring of sessions, storing information on specific configurations regarding users who access the server, storing preferences, etc.
3. What are "technical" cookies?
Cookies are used to navigate or provide a service requested by the user. They are not used for further purposes and are normally installed directly by the website owner.
Without the use of these cookies, some operations could not be carried out or would be more complex and/or less secure, such as home banking activities (visualization of account extract, transfers, payment of bills, etc.), for which cookies, which allow to make and maintain the identification of the user within the session, are indispensable.
4. Are analytics cookies "technical"?
No. The Garante (cf. measure of 8 may 2014) has specified that they can be assimilated to technical cookies only if used for the purpose of optimization of the site directly from the owner of the site itself, that can collect information in aggregate form on the number of users and on how they visit the site. Under these conditions, for analytics cookies are the same rules, in the matter of information and consent, provided for technical cookies.
5. What are profiling cookies?
They are the cookies used to track the navigation of the user on the net and create profiles on his tastes, habits, choices, etc. These cookies can be transmitted to the user terminal advertising messages in line with the preferences already expressed by the same user in online navigation.
6. Do you need your consent to install cookies on your terminal?
It depends on the purposes for which cookies are used and, therefore, if they are "technical" or "profiling" cookies.
For the installation of technical cookies, the user's consent is not required, while the information must be given (Art. 13 of the Privacy Code). Profiling cookies, on the other hand, can be installed on the user terminal only if this has expressed its consent after being informed with simplified methods.
7. How does the owner of the site provide the simplified information and request consent to the use of profiling cookies?
As determined by the Guarantor in the measure referred to in question 4, the information must be set on two levels.
When you access a website (on the home page or on any other page), you must immediately appear a banner containing a first "short" information, the request for consent to the use of cookies and a link to access a more "extended" information. On this page, you can find more detailed information about cookies to choose which specific cookies to authorize.
8. How should the banner be made?
The banner must have such dimensions to cover in part the content of the web page that the user is visiting. It must be eliminated only by means of an active user intervention, i.e. by selecting an element contained on the page below.
9. What indications should the banner contain?
The banner must specify that the site uses profiling cookies, possibly also of "third parties", which allow to send advertising messages in line with user preferences.
It must contain the link to the extended information and the indication that, through that link, it is possible to deny consent to the installation of any cookie.
You must specify that if you choose to continue "saving" the banner, you consent to the use of cookies.
10. How can the acquisition of consent by using the banner be documented?
To keep track of the acquired consent, the owner of the site may use a specific technical cookie, a system not particularly invasive and that does not require further consent.
In the presence of this "documentation", it is not necessary that the short notice be reproduced on the second visit of the user on the site, remaining the possibility for the latter to deny the consent and/or change, at any time and in an easy way, its options, for example through access to the extended information, which must therefore be linkable from each page of the site.
11. Can online consent to the use of cookies be requested only through the use of the banner?
No. The owners of the sites always have the possibility to resort to methods other than that identified by the Guarantor in the above provision, provided that the methods chosen show all the validity requirements of the consent required by law.
12. Does the obligation to use the banner also weigh on the owners of sites that use only technical cookies?
No. In this case, the owner of the site may give the information to users in the manner that it considers most suitable, for example, also through the inclusion of the relevant information in the privacy policy indicated on the site.
13. What does the "extended" information mean?
It must contain all the elements required by law, analytically describe the characteristics and purposes of cookies installed by the site and allow the user to select/deselect individual cookies.
It must include the updated link to the information and consent forms of the third parties with which the owner has entered into agreements for the installation of cookies through its website.
Finally, it must recall the possibility for the user to manifest their options on cookies also through the browser settings used.
14. Who is required to provide information and request consent for the use of cookies?
The owner of the website who installs profiling cookies.
For third-party cookies installed through the site, the information and consent obligations affect third parties, but the owner of the site, as a technical intermediary between these and users, is required to insert in the "extended" information the updated links to the information and consent forms of the third parties themselves.
15. Should the use of cookies be notified to the Guarantor?
Profiling cookies, which usually remain over time, are subject to the obligation of notification, while cookies that have different purposes and which fall within the category of technical cookies, should not be notified to the Guarantor.
16. When does the measures prescribed by the Guarantor enter into force on 8 May 2014?
The Guarantor has provided for a transitional period of one year from the publication of the measure in the Official Journal to allow the parties concerned to comply. This period will end on 2 June 2015.