Online bookies accused of UK privacy breaches with use of cookie banners
A study found that 86% of licensed UK gambling websites appear to be violating GDPR by nudging users toward accepting tracking, and in many cases harvesting data before any consent is given. The research accuses the industry of widespread non-compliance and what it describes as systematic data surveillance of customers.
Why this matters: Gambling sites know a lot about you already. Add tracking data and they know more: your habits, your hours, how often you come back. These are not neutral facts. They can be used to target people at vulnerable moments. GDPR was supposed to stop companies from collecting that data before you say yes. Most of these sites apparently did it anyway. That is not a technicality. It means real people had their behavior recorded without meaningful choice, and the companies collecting it faced no real consequence for doing so.
Who should care: Lawyers · Privacy officers · AI governance · Compliance · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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