The Danish Business Authority ('DBA') issued, on 13 June 2022, a statement on data sharing of website users' data with Russian companies through the use of cookies, fonts, images, and other plugins, among others, following media coverage of the same. In particular, the DBA stated that it had undertaken analysis to get an overview of the scope of the issue by reviewing 10,000 websites with the most Danish visits and examining how many of those automatically shared data about their website users with Russian companies in the first quarter of 2022. In this regard, the DBA explained that the review showed that about 3% of the websites had shared data with Russian third parties, however the majority were foreign websites. More specifically, the DBA noted that on average, data on around 3.7 million Danish website visits are shared with Russian third-party services each month. 

Notably, the DBA highlighted that, often, citizens are unaware of such data sharing practices, as their data is harvested without prior consent. In this regard, the DBA outlined steps that website users can take to protect themselves, including:

• deleting cookies on websites;
• using a VPN to mask and continuously change website users' IP addresses; and 
• using Internet browsers with built-in privacy and security features. 

You can read the press release, only available in Danish, here.