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Show HN: A Chrome extension that will auto-reject non-essential cookies

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Re: Show HN: A Chrome extension that will auto-reject non-essential cookies

#161

Post by IggleSniggle »

troupo wrote: post #149
IggleSniggle wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm currently at a small ad tech firm and while I can't speak for other outfits, we definitely are extra careful about respecting user consent indicators. Because we are small, it's not easy to do this, because there are many possible ways for users to "reject". This includes situations that merely imply non-consent due to inaction, rather than active non-consent like a reject cookie indicator, or living in a jurisdi…

> The free internet is built on ads. And ads don't require pervasive and invasive tracking. The industry made us all believe they do.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. The industry made us all believe they do, in what began as a differentiator from offline ads, that quickly spiraled into the current day insanity. Browsers have been playing cat and mouse to a degree, but except for the annoying cookie banners that everybody hates, regulation like GDPR is the thing that has restored some small piece of sanity. There should be more and better regulation + enforcement to better align ad tech with the interests of the public.

Re: Show HN: A Chrome extension that will auto-reject non-essential cookies

#162

Post by randunel »

cies wrote: post #147
dhc02 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I would still love a site-by-site "reject non-essential cookies" prompt from an extension that's in the same place, with the same UI, on every site. Still a click, but lots better than having to figure out how to accomplish it on each and every site.

Exactly. So you could have 2 shortcuts: one for reject all non essential, one for accept all. Much better UX than figuring out per site which button to click.

Why would you ever accept all? The options should be reject all non essential and reject all (may break something)

Re: Show HN: A Chrome extension that will auto-reject non-essential cookies

#163

Post by progval »

troupo wrote: post #151
ximm wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was the "Do Not Track" header, but I don't think any sites that actually honored it. And it is deprecated now. On Firefox we still have webRequestBlocking, so it is quite simple to block cookies. See for example https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ximatrix/

> There was the "Do Not Track" header, but I don't think any sites that actually honored it. And it is deprecated now. Sites used that header to fingerprint and track users.

Source?

Re: Show HN: A Chrome extension that will auto-reject non-essential cookies

#164

Post by troupo »

progval wrote: post #163
troupo wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There was the "Do Not Track" header, but I don't think any sites that actually honored it. And it is deprecated now. Sites used that header to fingerprint and track users.

Source?

As it wasn't widely implemented, and few people turned it on, Safari removed it in 12.1 as a potential fingerprinting variable: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safari-release-not...

I think I remember a larger article about this, but can't find it now

Re: Show HN: A Chrome extension that will auto-reject non-essential cookies

#165

Post by randunel »

IggleSniggle wrote: post #75
coldpie wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think these websites give a shit about your privacy because you clicked on a div with a "No" in it? Not a chance. It's like asking thieves to promise not to steal from you. Protecting users is the browser's job: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-prote... https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/introducing-total-cooki...

I'm currently at a small ad tech firm and while I can't speak for other outfits, we definitely are extra careful about respecting user consent indicators. Because we are small, it's not easy to do this, because there are many possible ways for users to "reject". This includes situations that merely imply non-consent due to inaction, rather than active non-consent like a reject cookie indicator, or living in a jurisdi…

> The free internet is built on ads.

Check your internet bill, it might not be free after all.

I'd very much rather get back to the internet being about connectivity and nothing else. The internet would survive just fine by providing a means to contact authorities, companies and each other, without any of the "content" for which we supposedly need ads to produce

Re: Show HN: A Chrome extension that will auto-reject non-essential cookies

#166

Post by ocdtrekkie »

cies wrote: post #148
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fundamentally there is no reason anyone in their right mind should install an extension released by an individual with these permissions. It is a post-decryption access to every single thing you do online. It is absolutely insane to trust your web browsing to a random browser extension, even a useful one ("cloud to butt" is my favorite example of people deleting their entire security model for a joke). Anyone can buy…

It's open source. So it can be audited. The problem is: who audits and how to know a new version is audited.

And by the time someone notices, how much of your private information is already gone and do you already have ransomware.

Re: Show HN: A Chrome extension that will auto-reject non-essential cookies

#167

Post by rapind »

troupo wrote: post #152
rapind wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's good to know (and reasonable)!

GDPR was adopted 9 years ago. It's insane to me that people still go out of their way to know nothing about it.

Well I don’t live in or operate a business in the EU and none of my customers are in the EU.

I did start looking into it out of curiosity, but TBH it wasn’t obvious what I needed to do, if anything.

I doubt most Europeans know much about Canada’s data protection laws either, and it would be insane for me to expect them to.

Re: Show HN: A Chrome extension that will auto-reject non-essential cookies

#168

Post by jniles »

IggleSniggle wrote: post #75
coldpie wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think these websites give a shit about your privacy because you clicked on a div with a "No" in it? Not a chance. It's like asking thieves to promise not to steal from you. Protecting users is the browser's job: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-prote... https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/introducing-total-cooki...

I'm currently at a small ad tech firm and while I can't speak for other outfits, we definitely are extra careful about respecting user consent indicators. Because we are small, it's not easy to do this, because there are many possible ways for users to "reject". This includes situations that merely imply non-consent due to inaction, rather than active non-consent like a reject cookie indicator, or living in a jurisdi…

Just curious, but it sounds like this is the ideal use case for Do Not Track. Do you all use that as a signal to not track/remove nonessential cookies?

Re: Show HN: A Chrome extension that will auto-reject non-essential cookies

#169

Post by shadowgovt »

nottorp wrote: post #142
shadowgovt wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just always click accept all. Less to think about, and it basically puts the web into the state it was in before we all got bent out of shape about tracking, which was fine. (Now that I type that... I should have made an extension ages a go that just does "identify cookie banner and click on the left-most button automatically").

> and click on the left-most button automatically Why do you think the left-most button is always accept all? Why do you think the accept all button will be in the same position on all reloads of the same site?

It's more that, as an end-user, I do not care whether I click accept or reject all; my goal is to get that UX speed-bump out of my face as quickly as possible.

Maybe it'd be better to randomize which button is selected so if the plugin becomes popular site admins can't reliably guess where to put the button.

Re: Show HN: A Chrome extension that will auto-reject non-essential cookies

#170

Post by 47282847 »

IggleSniggle wrote: post #75
coldpie wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think these websites give a shit about your privacy because you clicked on a div with a "No" in it? Not a chance. It's like asking thieves to promise not to steal from you. Protecting users is the browser's job: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-prote... https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/introducing-total-cooki...

I'm currently at a small ad tech firm and while I can't speak for other outfits, we definitely are extra careful about respecting user consent indicators. Because we are small, it's not easy to do this, because there are many possible ways for users to "reject". This includes situations that merely imply non-consent due to inaction, rather than active non-consent like a reject cookie indicator, or living in a jurisdi…

> The free internet is built on ads. I still believe in the free internet.

The internet I remember had free content because mostly individuals wanted to share something. Commercial offers were rare. I would be very happy to go back to that network, with 90% content gone and the remaining 10% provided without an ads driven model. In fact, if it was for me, one could widely ban most advertising also off-net. It is manipulative cancer. At least ban any sort of user tracking and analysis. Yes, this will kill a wide spectrum of offers. I am totally fine with that trade-off. We don’t need it for a well-functioning society. And yeah, look around, we do all sorts of interference with so-called free markets, because history has shown time and time again how horrible it gets when you allow capitalism to roam freely.

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