One signal instead of a thousand banners
Global Privacy Control records the objection once in the browser and sends it to every site visited. A Berlin court held in 2022 that it has to be honoured – raising a question many banners do not answer.
The idea is old and simple: instead of making a decision on every individual website, it is set once in the browser and sent along automatically. Technically that happens through an extra line in every request – as readable for the website as the language setting.
Why the second attempt turned out differently
The Berlin Regional Court decision
In 2022 the Berlin Regional Court held that such a signal is a valid objection under Article 21 GDPR. The reasoning is brief and persuasive: the Regulation prescribes no particular form for an objection, and in the context of information society services it expressly names automated means as a permissible route.
An uncomfortable consequence follows for practice: showing a banner although the signal is already present asks about something already answered – while ignoring the answer that is there.
What implementing it involves
Three steps on the server side
- Read the signalOne line in the request, as easy to read as the preferred language.
- Adopt it as the defaultEvery non-essential purpose stays off. The banner either does not appear or appears with that default.
- Give a local decision precedenceAnyone who explicitly agrees for this site has made a later and more specific decision – that one prevails.
The last point deserves attention because it is often built the wrong way round. The signal is a general default, the decision in the banner a specific one for this one site. The more specific and later decision prevails – but only where it was actually made. Simply assuming it because the banner appeared would be the old mistake in new packaging.