Cookie walls are a term used for blocking visitors to use the site unless they accept the website's cookie policy. In the most basic way, the user has to accept the cookie policy or change their preferences from settings with more than 2 steps.
However, European Union asserts the contrary. General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") Art. 4(11) explains the consent given by a data subject must be a freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous indication of the data subject's wishes. The guideline adopted by European Data Protection Board ("EDPB") on May 4, 2020, explains why cookie walls are not based on explicit consent.
EDPB explains the practice with the user's freely given consent. If the cookie wall blocks the site from being used because the consent has to be given, EDPB considers this as "not a valid consent" and "not presented with a genuine choice". Thus, as it is stated under Article 4(11) consent given by a data subject encountered with a cookie wall cannot be freely given nor unambiguous.
Turkish Personal Data Protection Authority's ("KVKK") Guideline on the Cookies suggests the same. As EDPB suggests, KVKK suggests there has to be an alternative to give freely given and valid consent by the data subject, other than a cookie wall. Ultimately, the data subject must be able to accept and deny cookie policies and consent has to be freely given in order for the consent to be considered valid consent.
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