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TikTok hit with consumer law breaches complaints across Europe

reuters.com

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Re: TikTok hit with consumer law breaches complaints across Europe

#21

As I click my 10,000th cookie modal to read this article, I am forced to ask if this legislation has made my web experience better in any way, to which the answer is a resounding no. I understand the importance of it, but please prioritise revising its shortcomings rather than doubling down on being the most tech-hostile region in the developed world.

The problem isn't the legislation but its lack of enforcement. The legislation itself explicitly prohibits annoying/misleading consent prompts.

Legislation is problematic too. I can't be bothered to make a decision to make a decision about storing cookies every time I visit a website, so I click yes every time without reading.

Re: TikTok hit with consumer law breaches complaints across Europe

#22
How does TikTok moderate their content anyway? Do they just have a massive amount of people scrolling through user reported videos looking for violations?

Being primarily video based and having the lowest barrier to upload seems like it would be a recipe for disaster.

Re: TikTok hit with consumer law breaches complaints across Europe

#23

As I click my 10,000th cookie modal to read this article, I am forced to ask if this legislation has made my web experience better in any way, to which the answer is a resounding no. I understand the importance of it, but please prioritise revising its shortcomings rather than doubling down on being the most tech-hostile region in the developed world.

Well… if GitHub could fix their cookies so that they do not need to show any more modals, some of those 10,000 could too.

https://github.blog/2020-12-17-no-cookie-for-you/

Re: TikTok hit with consumer law breaches complaints across Europe

#24

As I click my 10,000th cookie modal to read this article, I am forced to ask if this legislation has made my web experience better in any way, to which the answer is a resounding no. I understand the importance of it, but please prioritise revising its shortcomings rather than doubling down on being the most tech-hostile region in the developed world.

Well, it is better, since I assume that you don't click "yes, allow". If you would, you would likely have a cookie saying "he/she is ours" with a lifetime longer than the heatdeath of the universe. If you dare to click no, that's when you get 10k options and optouts and have to send fax to someones grandma.

The root cause of your experience being worse is not the legislation, it's that the site doesn't follow the intent/purpose of the law. They want to annoy you until you click "yes".

They could simply present you with a yes/no modal once and be done with it, but they choose not to, hoping that they will break you down with time.

Re: TikTok hit with consumer law breaches complaints across Europe

#25
post #4

Title wrong as it's EU - not Europe, but many confuse and transpose them - even though they are not verbatim. EDIT Add - Europe is composed of 44 countries and the EU is composed of 27 from those.

> Europe is composed of 44 countries and the EU is composed of 27 from those.

And the BEUC is composed out of 32 of those.

Re: TikTok hit with consumer law breaches complaints across Europe

#26

As I click my 10,000th cookie modal to read this article, I am forced to ask if this legislation has made my web experience better in any way, to which the answer is a resounding no. I understand the importance of it, but please prioritise revising its shortcomings rather than doubling down on being the most tech-hostile region in the developed world.

Blame sites that show cookie modal even when they use cookies only for auth or just tech stuff

Also what if big companies want to make your experience as poor as possible in order to make you think that this law sucks?

Maybe using private mode in browser is making your experience even worse?

Re: TikTok hit with consumer law breaches complaints across Europe

#27
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem isn't the legislation but its lack of enforcement. The legislation itself explicitly prohibits annoying/misleading consent prompts.

I disagree. Pop-up fatigue causes people to just click the button that will get them to their content the fastest. While some people might dive into trying to opt out, when you get these pop-ups on every other site, many people are going to click the easiest button to make it go away. This is a poor law because it has to be done on every website. I think it may be better to have this as a decision the user chooses on…

The law is that it needs to be as easy to reject cookies as it is to accept them. Ergo, "people are going to click the easiest button to make it go away" indicates a failure to enforce.

I agree it'd be better handled by the browser than each website, though.

Re: TikTok hit with consumer law breaches complaints across Europe

#28
post #17

As I click my 10,000th cookie modal to read this article, I am forced to ask if this legislation has made my web experience better in any way, to which the answer is a resounding no. I understand the importance of it, but please prioritise revising its shortcomings rather than doubling down on being the most tech-hostile region in the developed world.

As clear as can be yes. Now you know which websites are willing to absolutely ruin your experience just to abuse you. The implications can be seen pretty much everywhere in society, it is a momentous step in the right direction.

Exactly, this just brings to light how little most companies care about their customers.

Not saying the legislation couldn't be improved, though.

Re: TikTok hit with consumer law breaches complaints across Europe

#29
post #24

As I click my 10,000th cookie modal to read this article, I am forced to ask if this legislation has made my web experience better in any way, to which the answer is a resounding no. I understand the importance of it, but please prioritise revising its shortcomings rather than doubling down on being the most tech-hostile region in the developed world.

Well, it is better, since I assume that you don't click "yes, allow". If you would, you would likely have a cookie saying "he/she is ours" with a lifetime longer than the heatdeath of the universe. If you dare to click no, that's when you get 10k options and optouts and have to send fax to someones grandma. The root cause of your experience being worse is not the legislation, it's that the site doesn't follow the int…

> They could simply present you with a yes/no modal once and be done with it

Any extra modal, as simple as it might be, leads to a really bad user experience and wasted time.

Re: TikTok hit with consumer law breaches complaints across Europe

#30

As I click my 10,000th cookie modal to read this article, I am forced to ask if this legislation has made my web experience better in any way, to which the answer is a resounding no. I understand the importance of it, but please prioritise revising its shortcomings rather than doubling down on being the most tech-hostile region in the developed world.

The website could have chosen to make your experience better by showing you 0 popups. EU isn’t involved in the quality management of web experiences.

To do that, of course, the website would need stop sending your latest ip address, your unique identifier, and the information that you’re a techie interested in Tiktok to all ad agencies and data brokers.

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