The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a reprimand to Sky Bet for unlawfully processing users' personal data through advertising cookies without their consent.

The ICO's investigation found that between 10 January and 3 March, 2023Sky Bet was sharing user information with advertising technology companies immediately upon website access, even before users had the chance to accept or reject cookies. This allowed for targeted advertising without user knowledge or consent.

From the ICO:

We investigated whether Sky Betting and Gaming was deliberately misusing people’s personal information to target vulnerable gamblers, following a complaint from Clean Up Gambling. While no evidence of deliberate misuse was found, the regulator concluded that Sky Betting and Gaming was processing personal data through the use of certain cookies in a way that was not lawful, transparent or fair.

As a result of our investigation, Sky Betting and Gaming made changes in March 2023 to ensure that people could reject advertising cookies before their personal information was shared for these purposes.

The enforcement action comes as we are working to crack down on websites that do not offer people a fair and informed choice over whether they want their personal information to be used for targeted advertising.

Last year, we reviewed the UK’s top 100 websites and discovered issues with how more than half of these websites were using advertising cookies. We wrote to these 53 to warn that they faced enforcement action if they did not make changes to advertising cookies to comply with data protection law. There has been a positive response to this call to action, with 52 of the websites making changes to how advertising cookies are used.
Read more here: https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2024/09/action-taken-against-sky-betting-and-gaming-for-using-cookies-without-consent/