Many readers of La Vanguardia’s digital edition were in for a surprise on Wednesday last week when, upon entering the website or application, a message appeared asking them to indicate whether they accepted or rejected the cookies (a system that stores in the user’s browser their reading habits and which, among other things, allows them to be offered personalized advertising).
The surprise was not because of the query itself, since it has been appearing on all web pages for some time, but because now to access the web you can alternatively accept the use of certain cookies or subscribe to the newspaper.
“I wonder if this mode of ‘Accept cookies’ or ‘Reject and subscribe’ is legal”, asked a reader on the X social network. “I perfectly understand the payment to access journalistic content. What I don’t understand is the obligation to pay or accept cookies just to see the headlines”, complained another.
Eugenia Sánchez, data protection representative of the Godó Group, points out that the change in the cookie policy is due to the demand of the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD), which, in line with European guidelines, obliges from January 10 to place on the same level the option to accept or reject them. The AEPD ratifies that there may be cases in which not accepting cookies prevents access to the website or service, as long as the user is informed and an alternative is offered to do so “not necessarily free”. The majority of large Spanish newspapers that, like La Vanguardia, have opted for the digital subscription model to maintain quality journalism in the face of changing reader habits have adapted to the regulations requiring that there be some type of payment to browse without cookies. A measure that, as the data protection representative explains, was already taken years ago by leading newspapers in Germany, France and Italy.
So how does the measure affect subscribers and readers? As mentioned, privacy and data protection comply in both cases with the new instructions of the AEPD and, as regards access to the contents of the newspaper, both the one and the other will be able to continue browsing as before now, with the already mentioned new cookie acceptance requirement for non-subscribers.
