I think the ePrivacy Directive's choice of the phrase "gaining of access" is important when talking about passive things like a server receiving a client's user

I think the ePrivacy Directive's choice of the phrase "gaining of access" is important when talking about passive things like a server receiving a client's user agent string. "gaining" implies that some sort of active participation and intent in requesting, retrieving or processing the information is required on the part of the server, rather than passively receiving something a client sent without being solicited. After all, if a cybersecurity law refers to "gaining access" to a computer system, doesn't it refer to actually accessing it, rather than that access was merely possible? However, IANAL and I wouldn't want to test this in a court myself ;-)