The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) are calling for businesses to stop using harmful website designs that can trick consumers into giving up more of their personal data than they would like.
Practices include overly complicated privacy controls, default settings that give less control over personal information and bundling privacy choices together in ways that push consumers to share more data than they would otherwise wish to do.
Where consumers lack effective control over how their data is collected and used, this can harm consumers and also weaken competition.
Lack of consumer control over cookies is a common example of harmful design. The ICO will be assessing cookie banners of the most frequently used websites in the UK, and taking action where harmful design is affecting consumers.
The ICO will take enforcement action where necessary to protect people’s data protection rights, particularly where the practices lead to harms for people at risk of vulnerability.
For further information please select the following link ICO and CMA: Harmful online design encourages consumers to hand over personal information | ICO