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Ask HN: GDPR pop-ups are getting so annying, what should we do about it?

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Re: Ask HN: GDPR pop-ups are getting so annying, what should we do about it?

#31

Post by baash05 »

systemvoltage wrote: post #16
himinlomax wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GDPR does not mandate those pop-ups, most of them are not compliant and only exist as a way to try pretend to comply with the law.

I didn't say it’s a mandate. It’s a terrible side effect and a loop hole. The second part of my comment is about businesses going though GDPR checklists. I did one for my firm. It’s not too bad but if you read the entire GDPR booklet, there are varying levels of adherence to GDPR. Most small businesses check off things but the boots-on-the-ground effects are negligible. On the other hand, you could technically be lia…

My fear is.. I'm one of the "isn't often" exceptions. I don't use an electric skateboard, or j-walk. I've been fined for both. If there is an edge case for a fine, they will fine me.

Re: Ask HN: GDPR pop-ups are getting so annying, what should we do about it?

#32

Post by ale42 »

ssss11 wrote: post #27

I think they are ugly, clumsy and annoying because the companies that are forced to show them resent that and want it to fail. It feels like they’re saying to me “Look at this horrible thing I’m forced to present to you, I’m not letting you read what you’re here for until you go through the most annoying way of responding” It should be a browser feature but chrome has dominant market share and why would they do anyth…

> We need a better browser…. Don’t say Firefox. Brave could be it I suppose.

Brave is just based on Chromium... it might have lots of different features, but still Chromium it is under the hood.

Re: Ask HN: GDPR pop-ups are getting so annying, what should we do about it?

#33

Post by onion2k »

cinntaile wrote: post #24
onion2k wrote: post #6

These pop-ups are making it hard to enjoy the Internet, what do you suggest to do to get rid of these pop-ups? Embrace them. Learn to love them. They're a good feature . Making websites explicitly require permission to do (subjectively) negative things like tracking users is a massively positive step in the right direction towards us all having ownership and agency over of our lives as we spend time online. Sure, it…

> "Eurgh! I had to click a button again! I'd sacrifice my privacy not to have to do that any more!" is a really bad take in my opinion. I assume you don't surf in incognito mode. The collective amount of hours wasted clicking those popups must be enormous.

The collective amount of hours wasted clicking those popups must be enormous.

You can't add them up and use that time though. That time is always going to be fragmented in to unusable bits. Millions of people wasting 2s each is not equivalent to thousands of hours of lost productivity. Likewise, one person wasting 2s many of times a year can't be replaced with a useful hour.

The 'lost time' argument doesn't make sense.

Re: Ask HN: GDPR pop-ups are getting so annying, what should we do about it?

#34

Post by detaro »

baash05 wrote: post #3

I just put an ip-address to country list in my middleware and block all the GDPR countries. Now I have no issue with popups or cookies. Honestly, I'd like to see more people follow that. I got the idea from others and it seems like a perfect solution. People who can't/don't want cookies cannot really use any site I've ever worked on. It makes no sense building things for people who won't ever be customers.

You do understand that the requirement isn't "site needs to work without any cookies"?

Re: Ask HN: GDPR pop-ups are getting so annying, what should we do about it?

#35

Post by ID1452319 »

Xelbair wrote: post #21

Comply with the law, don't gather unnecessary PII and poof - no need for popups.

My understanding is that you must tell people if you set cookies for any purpose, regardless of whether they are collecting personal data. Therefore, pretty much any content management solution, Wordpress site etc. will need to display a cookie consent banner.

Re: Ask HN: GDPR pop-ups are getting so annying, what should we do about it?

#36

Post by rlpb »

baash05 wrote: post #23
krageon wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It must be really odious for you to respect the people that use your website. Thank you for removing yourself.

Here's the thing. The GDPR isn't really that great a set of rules. It's too vague, and really hard to manage. I do however treasure privacy rights. That's why I don't use cloud flare. It blocks TOR, and many VPN's. I've almost built my site to favour those methods of privacy, and I highly recommend them to people I have paid the price of being on TOR often enough. Heaps of sights are beyond my reach. People have the…

> It's too vague, and really hard to manage.

It's really not. Don't collect or process personally identifying information, and you're in immediate compliance.

Re: Ask HN: GDPR pop-ups are getting so annying, what should we do about it?

#37

Post by captainbland »

To me it seems like they're usually similar enough and have broadly similar controls that it should be something that users should be able to configure from their browsers on a blanket basis, which should be provided in some standard HTTP headers/accessible through JS.

Re: Ask HN: GDPR pop-ups are getting so annying, what should we do about it?

#38

Post by CodeGlitch »

ale42 wrote: post #32
ssss11 wrote: post #27

I think they are ugly, clumsy and annoying because the companies that are forced to show them resent that and want it to fail. It feels like they’re saying to me “Look at this horrible thing I’m forced to present to you, I’m not letting you read what you’re here for until you go through the most annoying way of responding” It should be a browser feature but chrome has dominant market share and why would they do anyth…

> We need a better browser…. Don’t say Firefox. Brave could be it I suppose. Brave is just based on Chromium... it might have lots of different features, but still Chromium it is under the hood.

That's just for rendering though isn't it? Brave are free (and do) add any features they like on top of that.

Re: Ask HN: GDPR pop-ups are getting so annying, what should we do about it?

#39

Post by Reubensson »

ID1452319 wrote: post #35
Xelbair wrote: post #21

Comply with the law, don't gather unnecessary PII and poof - no need for popups.

My understanding is that you must tell people if you set cookies for any purpose, regardless of whether they are collecting personal data. Therefore, pretty much any content management solution, Wordpress site etc. will need to display a cookie consent banner.

I think you need cookie banner only if you use non-essential cookies. For example if you use cookies only for user auth, you don't need to display any notification about that.

Re: Ask HN: GDPR pop-ups are getting so annying, what should we do about it?

#40

Post by cinntaile »

onion2k wrote: post #33
cinntaile wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Eurgh! I had to click a button again! I'd sacrifice my privacy not to have to do that any more!" is a really bad take in my opinion. I assume you don't surf in incognito mode. The collective amount of hours wasted clicking those popups must be enormous.

The collective amount of hours wasted clicking those popups must be enormous. You can't add them up and use that time though. That time is always going to be fragmented in to unusable bits. Millions of people wasting 2s each is not equivalent to thousands of hours of lost productivity. Likewise, one person wasting 2s many of times a year can't be replaced with a useful hour. The 'lost time' argument doesn't make sens…

It's not just the 2s, it's also the frustration wasting time on something that adds no value at all. On its own this might not matter, but many of these small actions (not necessarily cookie related) do affect your productivity because they affect your mood.
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