1,741 "informed" consents with one click? GDPR complaint filed • Hacker News Board

Re: 1,741 "informed" consents with one click? GDPR complaint filed

#41

Post by happymellon » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 6:58 AM UTC

jcul wrote: post #6

I've seen similar on some android apps I think, where it will ask you if you consent to sharing data with partners or something similar. When you say no there's a huge list of partners you have to disable one by one, it's probably 15 minutes of work to go through them all. I can't think of an example app right now, but usually it's on first install or something like that. Not sure GDPR applies to apps though.

Why wouldn't GDPR apply to apps? It's not a cookie banner requirement, it is a regulation for data protection because companies were (are) selling harvested personal details and saving it for eternity.

Having personal information isn't always a bad thing, it would be really annoying if I had to fill out a form with my bank every couple of years to tell them my address, which hasn't changed and is a legitimate interest. Amazon telling everyone that I bought some athletes foot cream is not.

Re: 1,741 "informed" consents with one click? GDPR complaint filed

#42

Post by loeg » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 6:58 AM UTC

CodesInChaos wrote: post #39

EU should simply outlaw tracking for advertisement purposes. Let's return to context based ads.

The rest of the world would be happier if websites geofenced the cookie consent banners to EU IPs only and just left the rest of us alone, with any combination of cookies/tracking.

Re: 1,741 "informed" consents with one click? GDPR complaint filed

#43

Post by duskdozer » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 7:02 AM UTC

loeg wrote: post #42

CodesInChaos wrote: post #39

EU should simply outlaw tracking for advertisement purposes. Let's return to context based ads.

The rest of the world would be happier if websites geofenced the cookie consent banners to EU IPs only and just left the rest of us alone, with any combination of cookies/tracking.

And we'd all be even happier with no banners and no tracking.

Re: 1,741 "informed" consents with one click? GDPR complaint filed

#44

Post by happymellon » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 7:02 AM UTC

timr wrote: post #24

wyager wrote: post #18

Can someone who works in commercial web dev explain how companies even end up with this much crap pulled into their websites?

Likely has little relationship to what is actually in the page. They had to do GDPR, didn't or couldn't spend a lot of time on it -- or had an especially conservative corporate counsel -- and ended up just getting a list of every company they've ever worked with, for any reason, "to be safe". For most companies this can easily be thousands of partners, and going through that list and figuring out exactly who might ge…

> or had an especially conservative corporate counsel

And once again we shall see how being conservative sounds like it might save you money but costs you dearly in the long run.

Re: 1,741 "informed" consents with one click? GDPR complaint filed

#45

Post by 2muchcoffeeman » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 7:03 AM UTC

UpsideDownRide wrote: post #32

jtreitz wrote: post #17

My Samsung TV which I bought 8 years ago now suddenly asks me if it's okay they share data with their over 200 partners. They have the nerves to headline this with "protect your privacy". Generally not a big fan of EU policing but I wish somebody sued them over this. > Improving Your Experience and Protecting Your Privacy on Samsung TV Plus > Samsung and our 264 partners use information about you and your device in o…

Do you have a better system fix than what EU is trying to do?

People aren’t rational. They want to have less regulations so there’s more freedom to do what you want and then in the same sentence complain about enshittification.

Re: 1,741 "informed" consents with one click? GDPR complaint filed

#46

Post by cryptonym » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 7:04 AM UTC

loeg wrote: post #42

CodesInChaos wrote: post #39

EU should simply outlaw tracking for advertisement purposes. Let's return to context based ads.

The rest of the world would be happier if websites geofenced the cookie consent banners to EU IPs only and just left the rest of us alone, with any combination of cookies/tracking.

The whole world would be even happier if websites stoped this nonsense tracking of every single action bloating a single webpage with 20Mb of JS, connecting to 50+ domains, impacting accessibility, data usage & interactivity.

Re: 1,741 "informed" consents with one click? GDPR complaint filed

#47

Post by Kovah » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 7:04 AM UTC

UpsideDownRide wrote: post #32

jtreitz wrote: post #17

My Samsung TV which I bought 8 years ago now suddenly asks me if it's okay they share data with their over 200 partners. They have the nerves to headline this with "protect your privacy". Generally not a big fan of EU policing but I wish somebody sued them over this. > Improving Your Experience and Protecting Your Privacy on Samsung TV Plus > Samsung and our 264 partners use information about you and your device in o…

Do you have a better system fix than what EU is trying to do?

There would be a few fixes, if the politics would be interested in actually fixing this loophole.

- deny is the default: one button to deny everything but one accept button for every partner

- respect DO NOT TRACK, and force software/hardware providers to enable it by default

- making payments for non-tracking illegal

- remove or rephrase "legitimate interest" ruling, because providers use that as an excuse to enable everything

- and probably: prohibit any other dark pattern, or at least make it extremely hard to implement

Re: 1,741 "informed" consents with one click? GDPR complaint filed

#48

Post by NetOpWibby » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 7:08 AM UTC

eckelhesten wrote: post #19

jtreitz wrote: post #17

My Samsung TV which I bought 8 years ago now suddenly asks me if it's okay they share data with their over 200 partners. They have the nerves to headline this with "protect your privacy". Generally not a big fan of EU policing but I wish somebody sued them over this. > Improving Your Experience and Protecting Your Privacy on Samsung TV Plus > Samsung and our 264 partners use information about you and your device in o…

If I got a dollar for every person suckered into buying Samsung products… But to stay on topic: never! connect your tv to the internet. My LG has been offline for around 5 years now after automatically installing unwanted apps. Since then, I run everything via an Apple TV 4K which works way better than LGs own software does anyway.

Exact same setup here. Ideally I'd buy a dumb TV but they don't exist in the modern era.

Re: 1,741 "informed" consents with one click? GDPR complaint filed

#49

Post by CodesInChaos » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 7:10 AM UTC

troupo wrote: post #26

jcul wrote: post #6

I've seen similar on some android apps I think, where it will ask you if you consent to sharing data with partners or something similar. When you say no there's a huge list of partners you have to disable one by one, it's probably 15 minutes of work to go through them all. I can't think of an example app right now, but usually it's on first install or something like that. Not sure GDPR applies to apps though.

GDPR is a General Data Protection Regulation. It applies to everything . 10 years . It's been in force for 10 years . The tracking/ad industry has really managed to brainwash everyone into thinking it's about cookies (even though GDPR doesn't even mention cookies except as an example of tracking)

There is the ePrivacy directive as well, which mentions cookies (as a representative example), and I think it requires user consent in cases where GDPR doesn't.

Re: 1,741 "informed" consents with one click? GDPR complaint filed

#50

Post by Barbing » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 7:10 AM UTC

loeg wrote: post #33

Nursie wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that even if you click "Accept" there is no reasonable way to infer that the user has given informed consent, because becoming informed would likely take days or weeks. As such the conditions for data sharing are not met and it is likely to be illegal.

> becoming informed would likely take days or weeks. Then it is basically impossible to consent to any kind of tracking, because users cannot become informed for any number of 3rd parties -- even a single one.

A simple diagram of them opening a user’s mouth and cramming 200 logos down our throats would inform pretty well, especially if (this being the greater fantasy) the corresponding opt-in was buried deep at the bottom of a list in an obscure settings menu.