BRUSSELS—Yahoo Inc. Friday rolled out a new system in the U.K. for letting Web users opt out of allowing websites to collect information about their Internet habits. The move is an effort to comply with a new European Union law mandating user consent before collecting data about Internet users’ identities and habits via small tracking files known as “cookies.”
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based firm is placing small icons tagged “AdChoices” in the upper right-hand corner of ads. Clicking on them provides users with information about Yahoo’s advertising business and the chance to decline to let Yahoo and third-party sites place cookies on their computers.
With many in the tech industry confused about how exactly the 2009 law will be enforced in Europe—only a tiny minority of EU countries have written it into their national legislations ahead of a May deadline—Yahoo’s pilot scheme, already in place elsewhere, is seen as a bellwether.
At stake, say people in the tech industry, is the functioning of Europe’s Internet-advertising industry, worth some $20 billion in ad spending last year.
Continues at: Yahoo Rolls Out System for User Consent on Cookies – WSJ.com.
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