Reflections upon ‘The Privacy Fallacy’ by Ignacio Cofone

The author offers some comments to ‘The Privacy Fallacy’ by Ignacio Cofone in connection with a selection of EU law mandatory provisions countering behavioural distortion and addresses the issue of privacy consent evidencing, on one side, the interest of online users in personalised information, including targeted advertisement, and, on the other side, the possibility to maintain that any privacy consent given for a processing activity that is either directly or indirectly prohibited by mandatory provisions of Union or national law shall be deemed invalid pursuant to article 5(1)(b) GDPR, remarking that this interpretation of the GDPR helps in overcoming a procedural interpretation of the controller’s accountability principle, rightly criticised by Ignacio Cofone in his book.