Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're right about explicitly set preferences. What do you see as the harm in website owners using aggregated analytics data to improve their sites?
Abstract: It's still spying on users. Practical: Supposedly-aggregated stats have a history of actually being perfectly possible to analyze back into individually identifiable information. Also, it's conveniently the same tech stack in a way that makes it easier to make an actual slippery slope.
Kill The Cookie Banner
421–430 of 621 posts
Re: Kill The Cookie Banner
#422Earlier quoted context omitted.
The companies want to track everything you do on the web. EU passes a law that says they have to ask for permission first. They all comply maliciously because they still just want to track you. Then you blame the government.
The mechanism that I have to make a legal agreement with every site was a government choice, and a poor one.
Re: Kill The Cookie Banner
#423Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aggregated analytics do, and you can't run a serious website without some kind of analytics. Preference-storing does as well, despite any reasonable user expecting that, if they set a preference, it will be saved.
You don't need cookies for basic aggregated analytics. Now if you want to track and record mouse movement, you do, and that's a privacy concern. The law really has nothing to do with cookies, it has to do with privacy, tracking, and PII. You can absolutely save preferences and perform analytics. What you can't do is hoard data that is personally identifiable for purposes that are not obvious to the consumer.
Re: Kill The Cookie Banner
#424Earlier quoted context omitted.
The mechanism that I have to make a legal agreement with every site was a government choice, and a poor one.
No, its the website's choice. They want to track you. The government said they need permission to do that. They could offer a better experience by just not tracking you.
Re: Kill The Cookie Banner
#425Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, I guess it's impossible to have a quick enable kids mode then. We should just give up and give random individuals access to everyone's camera roll.. no other way.
It is probably technically possible, but as almost twenty years hasn't been enough to implement this feature in either of the big mobile systems, it's obviously a huge practical challenge for Apple and Google.
Re: Kill The Cookie Banner
#426Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of UK sites (Reach local news stuff) now explicitly say take cookies or pay, which tbh I always thought was illegal.
It's wild to me that anyone thinks that would be a reasonable law (whether or not it is law, I have no clue, I don't live in UK or EU). If you made a website and you said "To view the private content on my website, you have to either pay me, or sign a name, any name you wish, in my guestbook" what business is it of the government to say "No, this random person refuses to pay or sign the book, but Thom, you have to le…
Re: Kill The Cookie Banner
#427At all.
Re: Kill The Cookie Banner
#428Earlier quoted context omitted.
Allowing bad actors to act badly against all but the most sophisticated users is exactly where lawmakers should be stepping in. Sorry you find that controversial.
YouTube is a site that pretty much everyone has an account already for (and therefore have already consented), but say you make YouTube 2, you can only make money if people allow personalized ads (they pay 10-20x untargeted ads). 90% less revenue means your business model doesn't work. The government in the area has decided you can't refuse service to customers that cost you money (people who don't consent). You simp…
I simply will have to go out of business.
Re: Kill The Cookie Banner
#429Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't fall for the "we are just stupid" propaganda, which is used constantly by governments acting in bad faith. Browsers already had settings for deleting cookies. There was never a reason for banners whose only function was pulling the ladder up from smaller competitors and concentrating power in the hands of an oligopoly that could siphon data directly from the OS. This coupled with a law mandating ISPs provide a…
It’s not about cookies. It’s about what the site is allowed to do with your data. Cookies are an implementation detail. It’s baffling we’re having this misunderstanding on this site in 2026 still.
Re: Kill The Cookie Banner
#430Earlier quoted context omitted.
These popups aren't about cookies but really about spying. It seems you have nothing to hide. I understand: I also don't. However, the problem with spying is not about individual secrets but about the society and democracy. Lack of privacy harms journalism and activism, making the government too powerful and not accountable. If only activists and journalists will try to have the privacy, it will be much easier to tar…
A right to privacy also includes the freedom to forgo privacy in return for other benefits.