To Opt-in or to Opt-out, that is the question, whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune…While elsewhere in Europe certain countries followed different directions, regulators in Italy have not yet solved the dilemma. But is the current debate in Italy focusing on the core issues? There is a general perception of a lack of focus on understanding how the online world currently works, including the current online business models. Some required an explicit prior consent mechanism for each cookie. It would simply not work, benefitting only the operators based in the more lenient jurisdictions. We have mentioned in our recent vlog the paradox of the "all registered" = "non protected" users. Any strict and conservative approach would inevitably cause an increase of the requests for users' registration, that will end up justifying more invasive practices: while the current behavioral advertising models do not go beyond the anonymous dynamic IP address, with all registered users it would be possible to put a name and address on the other side of the screen, with a likely "less privacy friendly" evolution of such models. Furthermore, do online users have all elements to assess what are the pros and cons of certain registrations? Can they recognize the functionality of different types of cookies (and all cookies are not the same -any regulation should start from this obvious concept-)? Are we sure this is the right direction? There is no obvious answer. But ignoring how the internet currently works would not help in effectively protecting the privacy of the individuals and would negatively affect the growth of a very vital sector. Going back to Shakespeare, albeit there are solutions, the sudden end to the sea of troubles is yet to come. Please let me know if you want to know more about this subject (giangiacomo.olivi@dlapiper.com ).
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