Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made an assessment of the impact of restrictions on the use of pseudonymised data for personalised advertising on the financial sustainability of UK publishers.

The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) require online advertisers to seek consent to place cookies (and similar technologies) on users’ devices. But certain uses of cookies are a lower risk to privacy than others, and privacy enhancing techniques such as pseudonymisation can further reduce risk. As part of the Data (Use and Access) Bill this government introduced reforms to PECR that enabled more than £17m annually in compliance savings. The government is working with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), industry, and others to assess whether new exemptions under PECR could be used to promote growth and innovation in the advertising, creative, and publishing industries while maintaining high privacy standards for users.