Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Europe’s cookie consent reckoning is coming

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 73 posts

Re: Europe’s cookie consent reckoning is coming

#51

Post by vagrantJin »

nickpp wrote: post #28

The article is trying to make the case that the problem is that the "Reject All" button is difficult to find on the cookie popup and it's the site's fault for that. No. Let's make one thing clear. The problem is with the popup itself, with the fact that it exists. And it exists because the bone-headed law that required it: the GDPR. The fact that the very first decision I have to make when visiting a website is about…

I think the issue here is the law, but malicious compliance to that law. Which is bad.

The web should not be an ad marketplace that just happens to have content. The favoured rhetoric of the giant corps is that ads pay for the free content, which is balderdash. It's because these gigantic websites are little more than platforms sucking the air out of the web. You and I produce and consume the actual content. We can't allow middlemen to hold us hostage because they want more ad revenue.

Re: Europe’s cookie consent reckoning is coming

#52

Post by Mordisquitos »

Elrac wrote: post #27

My biggest problem with Europe's mandatory cookie warning is that the solution is worse than the problem. I'm aware that once I enter somebody's site there's a gazillion ways for that somebody to get data about me. If cookies are blocked they'll find another way. But thanks to Europe's feeling they need to nanny me, I get those obnoxious cookie warning popups on every site I visit. Worse, I can't opt out of the popup…

What the EU didn't ask you wasn't whether you "wanted to be protected", it was whether you wanted a choice regarding being tracked or not. What's so upsetting about being offered a choice?

The party who is making "the solution worse than the problem" and implementing the obnoxious procedures for you to express your choice are the businesses who have the most to gain from blaming the EU on how terrible it is that they can no longer do it without the users' consent.

Re: Europe’s cookie consent reckoning is coming

#53

Post by blueblisters »

The most annoying (and ironical) aspect of cookie consent banners is that websites don't remember your consent choices if you're using a browser setting that doesn't store cookies (say incognito mode). Moreover most websites use consent banners for all website visitors (regardless of whether they are in the EU or not), making the web unusable for everyone in the world.

Thanks, EU.

Re: Europe’s cookie consent reckoning is coming

#54

Post by thargor »

hnaccount_rng wrote: post #34
woodpanel wrote: post #18

The Gist: A non-profit developed a cralwer which can pick up misleading (or non-working) cookie-consent banners. > with a plan to file up to 10,000 complaints against offenders over the course of this year > Today it’s announcing the first batch of 560 complaints, large and small > noyb is even giving offenders a warning first — and a full month to clean up their ways In general I'm not a fan of vigilante law enforce…

They won't. > Anders als bei "Abmahnungen" die gerade in Deutschland problematische Ausmaße angenommen haben, fallen für die betroffenen Unternehmen dabei keinerlei Kosten an, da das Projekt durch Spenden der rund 4.000 Fördermitglieder von noyb finanziert wird. https://noyb.eu/de/noyb-setzt-dem-cookie-banner-wahnsinn-ein...

Simplified Translation: they don't charge the corporations anything. Noyb is financed by donations.

Re: Europe’s cookie consent reckoning is coming

#55

Post by outime »

ivoras wrote: post #15

I was and still am totally amazed that people still think it's a good idea to require each individual site owner to comply with that kind of policy instead of letting the browser vendors do the hard work. Which is easier - to modify and monitor billions of different sites, or to create a framework and obligations on the side of browsers to handle it? Something like requiring all browsers to start with cookies disable…

How are they supposed to collect fines then?

Re: Europe’s cookie consent reckoning is coming

#56

Post by sofixa »

ivoras wrote: post #15

I was and still am totally amazed that people still think it's a good idea to require each individual site owner to comply with that kind of policy instead of letting the browser vendors do the hard work. Which is easier - to modify and monitor billions of different sites, or to create a framework and obligations on the side of browsers to handle it? Something like requiring all browsers to start with cookies disable…

But "cookie consent" isn't only about cookies, it's about tracking, data collection and data sharing in general. Why do people miss that?

Cookies are only one of the ways to track users, and they can be blocked. Your browser can't know everything used to fingerprint and track you on each and every site, and it can't know who that data is shared with. Those are the things that only the website owners know and only they can provide the users with choice.

Re: Europe’s cookie consent reckoning is coming

#57

Post by croo »

iconara wrote: post #17

> The problem is that most websites simply aren’t compliant. They choose to make a mockery of the law by offering a skewed choice: Typically a super simple opt-in (to hand them all your data) vs a highly confusing, frustrating, tedious opt-out (and sometimes even no reject option at all). Like the Techcrunch site where this was published.

I know right?! I went there and met by a giant wall of GDPR bullshit without a button to say "no", buttons grayed out but clickable, multiple page scroll down to reach the desired opt out, default everything off on the first page, but default as you went further... prime example all the way.

At one point in the process I got worried that the GDPR popup is itself whats posted and not an article.

Re: Europe’s cookie consent reckoning is coming

#58

Post by gspr »

nickpp wrote: post #35
gspr wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The fact that the very first decision I have to make when visiting a website is about an issue I don't five a flying f&$# about is mind-boggling. You seem to have a hard time understanding that laws may be designed to protect people who are not you.

What percent of the population do you think has as the first priority when visiting a website the detail that they are tracked or not? What percent do you think even cares ? And what is the law protecting them against?! I still have to discover the horrifying malice tracking does to visitors. So far I know two downsides: resource usage and ads following you. Now compare that with the gigantic waste of time when hunti…

> What percent of the population do you think has as the first priority when visiting a website the detail that they are tracked or not?

Why does it have to be first priority in order to matter a lot?

> What percent do you think even cares?

I don't know, exactly. I seem to recall that several tens of percents of people are worried about technological tracking, so I'd hazard a guess of a few tens of percents.

> I still have to discover the horrifying malice tracking does to visitors.

So you're one of those people who'd happily stream your bathroom to the public?

> This is how it is when a bureaucrat decides to protect you from yourself: reminds me of the War on Drugs.

What a terrible analogy. It's not protecting you from yourself. You're welcome to accept all the tracking if you so wish. It's protecting you from the trackers!

Re: Europe’s cookie consent reckoning is coming

#59

Post by PaulKeeble »

ivoras wrote: post #15

I was and still am totally amazed that people still think it's a good idea to require each individual site owner to comply with that kind of policy instead of letting the browser vendors do the hard work. Which is easier - to modify and monitor billions of different sites, or to create a framework and obligations on the side of browsers to handle it? Something like requiring all browsers to start with cookies disable…

There isn't really anything in GDPR that says this can't be automated and dealt with by the browsers, so long as users are given the choice and from their set their defaults.

It is a matter of intentional annoyance and non compliance but appearance to try and comply by these websites since we already have things like no track headers.

Re: Europe’s cookie consent reckoning is coming

#60

Post by elric »

ivoras wrote: post #15

I was and still am totally amazed that people still think it's a good idea to require each individual site owner to comply with that kind of policy instead of letting the browser vendors do the hard work. Which is easier - to modify and monitor billions of different sites, or to create a framework and obligations on the side of browsers to handle it? Something like requiring all browsers to start with cookies disable…

Why would it be a good idea to place the burden on the browser? That's like shooting the messenger.

All of these websites whose life seems to depend on being personal-data-thieves should simply go the way of the dinosaur. If you can't make enough money to keep your site afloat without violating people's rights, then your website shouldn't exist.

What I'd prefer, and where browsers could actually play an integral part, is an easier system for online (micro)payments. Want to read this article? Pay €0.05 please. No registration required. Want a monthly subscription? That'll be €5/month, please create an account.

I loved the web when most websites were either run by universities, or by people who just wanted to share. You know, when things were actually free. Now it seems like everyone and their grandmonther wants to profit off of every little blog by selling my personal data. Which is ridiculous, considering it's an order of magnitude cheaper to host a site than it was in the 90s.

Post reply on HN