Kill The Cookie Banner

Post by inigyou » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 10:57 AM UTC

xp84 wrote: post #288

kleiba2 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it’s well-understood that very few people actually read those things, they just want to get them out of the way. This is a jaw-drop moment for me every single time I observe someone else using the web and quickly clicking "accept" on every single cookie banners that pops up, without ever wasting a second even reading what they're accepting. It's mind boggling to me. Sure, I'm in IT, so surely I'm more aware of data…

It literally does not matter what you pick on these things - most of them don't work anyway. Think about it: Of course they don't. All the third-party javascript is already on the page. Anything you do inside the sandbox with UI provided by, usually, some other third-party, can't just magically force all that other code to behave in a specific way, unless someone has done a great deal of work to integrate the cookie…

Post by inigyou » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 10:59 AM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #504

xp84 wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me be clear, I can't stand the social-media industrial complex and the advertising universe. I've seen the bottom that we've raced to, with absolute bullshit popping up everywhere and entire sites full of slop with clickbait "headlines" just rigged to get ad impressions. And I'd gladly trade today's BS for any version of "The Internet" pre-2007. But the "Before" Internet wasn't some natural sustainable state. Bef…

> achieved great success with ad-based business models because of the ability to target ads better There's an old saying in advertising, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the trouble is I don’t know which half." - https://quoteinvestigator.com/2022/04/11/advertising/ The supposed benefit of the current model is to find and eliminate that wasted half. Facebook has shown me ads for dick pills and bo…

Post by TeMPOraL » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 11:01 AM UTC

xp84 wrote: post #328

fnord123 wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To me, having a browser setting for cookies is the only sane way to handle this, it's surprising that this was not considered from the beginning. There is one. It's a DNT header. Knucklehead websites ignore it.

Because it doesn't mean anything specific and breaks entire business models (merely logging that you landed from an ad click and seeing if you check out counts as 'tracking,' doesn't it?) if interpreted purely literally. So, the only way to treat it is to either ignore it or to just send back an error code and message that says "Sorry, having some tracking is the condition to get this free content. Accept or don't."…

Post by inigyou » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 11:04 AM UTC

tqi wrote: post #394

fsflover wrote: post #182

Earlier 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.

Post by inigyou » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 11:05 AM UTC

swat535 wrote: post #253

goodrubyist wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreeing to terms and contracts without reading or at least skimming them is not responsible adult behavior and should not be used as a model for legislation, no matter how many people do it. I agree that we do have a culture where private law is not taken very seriously, and that's very unfortunate. People do not have a right (morally speaking, not legally) to access or use a service (or a website) etc without havin…

Terms of services and contracts are written for lawyers and not the average people. If your terms require people to get a law degree and take a week to parse the 400 page document, then I would argue that it's a tactic to get people to sign up for the service without fully understanding it. We need legislation that forces companies to communicate the terms in a way that an average person can comprehend.