Article 29 Working Party Published Draft Guidelines on Consent and Transparency

The Article 29 Working Party has put forward proposals for two new guidelines on consent and transparency under the EU General Data Protection Regulation. These two draft guidelines are open for comment till the 23rd January.

The guidance on consent explains how consent may be valid, what is free, specific, informed, unambiguous consent. The guidance also explains the impact of the GDPR on current valid consents. The guidelines on consent make clear that controllers that currently process data on the basis of consent in compliance with national data protection law are not automatically required to completely refresh all existing consent relations with data subjects in preparation for the GDPR. If a controller finds that the consent previously obtained under the old legislation will not meet the standard of GDPR consent, then controllers must assess whether the processing may be based on a different lawful basis, taking into account the conditions set by the GDPR. However, this is a one off situation as controllers are moving from the Directive to the GDPR.

The guidance on transparency explains that all the information requirements under articles 13 and 14 have the same status. It provides further details on what information must be provided, how and when. Details on the timing and exceptions to the information requirements are brought. Layering is recommended to fight against consumer fatigue.