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Sigh, this is what browsing the web in the EU looks like nowadays (2021)

mmazzarolo.com

121–130 of 197 posts

Re: Sigh, this is what browsing the web in the EU looks like nowadays (2021)

#121
post #21

Instead of hating the EU, how about directing your hate towards the bad players of the web? Cookie banners are not the fault of the EU, but the fault of companies disrespecting privacy rights and pushing data collection, ads and all possible shady growth hacking strategies towards the user. I am glad that a government body actually made this possible and made visible how horrible the internet is.

> disrespecting privacy rights It's not as if these companies are kicking in your door and violating your right to privacy. You're accessing their site with a device that is configured to transmit whatever you have it set to. If you don't want cookies, disable cookies. If you want greater control, go and configure it yourself. Stop forcing your preferences on everyone. The reality is that outside of a vocal contingen…

> You're accessing their site with a device that is configured to transmit whatever you have it set to.

This is not how it works.

Me visiting a website does not mean I want that website to send my personal identifiers to hundreds of unknown (both to me and the website operator in question) third parties.

Re: Sigh, this is what browsing the web in the EU looks like nowadays (2021)

#122

We have been able to happily side-step this entire conversation in our new web properties. We literally use zero cookies (local storage, et. al.) in our latest products. The user's state is entirely managed on the server, and we pass their session identifier forward through hidden form fields or URL query parameter as appropriate. The only way this works is to go all-in on SSR-style web applications. 100% of user int…

It's a tangent, but what's your product/website?

Re: Sigh, this is what browsing the web in the EU looks like nowadays (2021)

#123

Disclaimer: I actually click through the "do not consent" procedure, which tells a lot about what I'm about to say. When the EU regulation came up, I was shocked that a single article was being shared with 100+ "partners". I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was that bad. At least now I get the choice to opt-out. Sidenote: Google got fined for that pop-up because it should have a "do not accept" option [1]. Compa…

Exactly, I always click the 'do not accept/consent' or 'manage my preferences' button. There are a surprising number of sites that use dark patterns.

Whoever made the initial video must be a shill for the tracking companies because they didn't click on the 'do not accept' options, otherwise people would see how pervasive and thoroughly ridiculous the trackers are.

Re: Sigh, this is what browsing the web in the EU looks like nowadays (2021)

#124

And think, if website operators chose to actually use the DoNotTrack signal from your browser, you wouldn't have such a terrible experience on their websites.

It's a real pity. Part of the issue is on browsers at the time were competing for developers, not users. So this feature was largely buried in UIs, its treatment was inconsistent, and browsers never bothered to enforce it.

Re: Sigh, this is what browsing the web in the EU looks like nowadays (2021)

#125
This is not an EU problem. This is a web problem. Companies have assumed they have a right to all of your personal information and so they build their sites and services around that.

The EU does it's best to at least let you know what's happening. What I would like is for browsers out of the box to auto reject cookies and tracking behavior. But that is probably the reason all the prompts are not standardized.

I like it, and Everytime I will go through and reject all of them. If the extension doesn't catch them already.

Re: Sigh, this is what browsing the web in the EU looks like nowadays (2021)

#126
post #86
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All they have to do is stop tracking us and only use login cookies if i log in. Simple enough. Any other cookies are not "table stakes".

Website analytics can be incredibly useful for designers and developers; giving those up would be a huge hit to a lot of companies, large and small, so it's understandable that they're not going to do so. Random example from more than a decade ago: I worked at an online retailer, and we did a nice redesign of our cart page. Looked great, much more readable, but we started losing sales. Did people hate the redesign? I…

> Website analytics can be incredibly useful for designers and developers; giving those up would be a huge hit to a lot of companies, large and small, so it's understandable that they're not going to do so.

I'll believe that when they don't have a huge banner that's covering a fourth of the page.

Re: Sigh, this is what browsing the web in the EU looks like nowadays (2021)

#127

Disclaimer: I actually click through the "do not consent" procedure, which tells a lot about what I'm about to say. When the EU regulation came up, I was shocked that a single article was being shared with 100+ "partners". I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was that bad. At least now I get the choice to opt-out. Sidenote: Google got fined for that pop-up because it should have a "do not accept" option [1]. Compa…

> Do you want to blame the EU for not anticipating that companies would act maliciously? Yes, I think we should clearly hold legislators accountable for unintended consequences. And I think it would be crazy not to. If the law didn't have the desired effect, and makes everyone miserable, we should fix or amend it.

How has the law not had the desired effect? For many sites it is now fairly simple to select the 'only essential' cookies option.

Re: Sigh, this is what browsing the web in the EU looks like nowadays (2021)

#128
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Companies know they don't need those pop-ups. They are putting them there to anger you and demand for things to go back. You're giving these companies much more credit than they deserve. They're just going through the motions in an attempt to avoid lawsuits, but clearly not even Google can get it right 100%. Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

incorrect; they are demanding that you download their app. "See! Our mobile experience isn't good, you need the app!!"

Who the heck downloads apps these days for every stupid thing? I mean apart from clueless grannies who would gladly send some money to that poor Nigerian prince over and over again.

I've stopped quite some time ago, basically my collection of apps is set in stone once I configure a new phone. If something seismic happens in real world I may add app in average rate 1 app/year, and that's about it.

Not using apps is so cool, some crappy webs that don't support mobile firefox with ublock origin don't even get my time, the rest is well curated. Due to reasons behind I am more than fine clicking on consent popups, the way they are designed to get to reject consent dialog tells you outright how moral/amoral business is behind it. So this is actually time-saving feature.

The thing is, life is short. No, its darn short, ask any old person. Definitely too short to waste too much of it on regretful things like phones.

See, everybody (who matters) wins.

Re: Sigh, this is what browsing the web in the EU looks like nowadays (2021)

#129
post #75

I don’t live in the EU and I have the same experience. This is my beef with the EU exporting their legislations.

Your beef is misplaced, madam/sir. EU does not mandate any website to store on your computer cookies that require consent. The companies (and individuals, hah) that choose to track you, do so of their own volition. As an EU citizen, I am actually somewhat delighted that our legislation that attempts to improve privacy is being successfully exported. But similarly to how I find the US exporting their legislation quite…

It isn't misplaced.

It's hard to dynamically figure out if you're an EU citizen or not via the browser. Hence, websites play it "safe" by showing it to pretty much the whole world.

Re: Sigh, this is what browsing the web in the EU looks like nowadays (2021)

#130
post #47

yes, it is a terrible experience...I personally think GDPR and thinking about user data is a great thing to have. But, the actual implementation is terribe. Like consent banner etc... I can tell 100% that whoever made this law is not a techie person. They wanted to solve a technical problem, like sharing user data without consent, through the law system that we used to...It would be a lot better if they forced this a…

The consent banners you complain about are not due to GDPR it is a different law plus a compliant website makes it as easy to reject cookies as it does to accept them.

I can feel that you are from EU. Just because the way you defend your arguments sounds so european. But, let me whisper it to your ears, this thing is shit bro. Literally, I'm spending hours looking at screen and this consent banner pops out almost every minute...I keep my right to take this to the court if I'm diagnosed with schizophrenia or whatever.
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