"Legitimate Interest" is when you need to collect personal information, but not for shady stuff. An example is for Fraud prevention, network security (eg: Cloud

"Legitimate Interest" is when you need to collect personal information, but not for shady stuff. An example is for Fraud prevention, network security (eg: Cloudflare), or for legal reasons (eg: purchase information). As long as you don't use this information for anything else you're in the clear, and don't need a cookie banner. Another example: "An organisation is looking into the way it stores job applicants’ personal details. It is legally required to store this information for six months, in case a candidate lodges a discrimination case." https://www.itgovernance.eu/blog/en/the-gdpr-legitimate-interest-what-is-it-and-when-does-it-apply https://www.itgovernance.eu/blog/en/the-gdpr-legitimate-inte... The problem described by Ekaros is that TrustArc and other cookie banner companies have interpreted this as meaning "I can add a checkbox so the user can say it is in their legitimate interest for ad-networks to harvest their data". Here's an example, "Legitimate Interest" is hidden on a second tab: https://preview.redd.it/zzsl63h7nly51.png?width=1358&format=png&auto=webp&s=5cb3a3a290d21460cb66bdeb8aa3dfe1d331ff6c https://preview.redd.it/zzsl63h7nly51.png?width=1358&format=... This is a dark pattern. This interpretation of GDPR is incorrect. Legitimate interest does not need a checkbox. Also, asking customers if something is legitimate interest or not doesn't make it so. Also, the fact that the "Legitimate Interest" checkbox is checked by default goes against the spirit of GDPR.