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Why our website looks like an operating system

posthog.com

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Re: Why our website looks like an operating system

#181

Post by troupo »

odie5533 wrote: post #168
omnimus wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very little? The norm used be to slap google analytics on everything. Suddenly everybody thinks about compliance — especially those who didn't even have idea there was something wrong. Many sites ditched tracking altogether so they don't have to have banners. Everybody is aware of GDPR so you can be pretty confident that when european site has no banner it doesn't track you. Could the law be better? Sure I would love…

The law has wasted billions of hours of human life and productivity. Was it worth it?

Ads industry did that. Was it worth it?

Re: Why our website looks like an operating system

#182

Post by stevesimmons »

pembrook wrote: post #139
xboxnolifes wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they can reply back: "Hey, you're wrong".

Doesn’t usually go over well with regulators. If they have to prove their site is fully compliant in court it would become mighty expensive to do so. So, cookie banner it is.

That's not how the process works.

Re: Why our website looks like an operating system

#183

Post by dgb23 »

auggierose wrote: post #151
ttiurani wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. If they indeed only use the cookie for essential functionality, this kind of joke banner only makes their choice to respect visitors' privacy equally annoying. Even worse: because it makes it seem like the EU law is just meritless pestering of people, they are actually fighting for the right for worse sites to spy on their visitors. It's baffling.

If the EU was a serious entity, they would just forbid cookies that are non-essential. Simple as that. Either you take your responsibility as a law maker serious, or you refrain from making laws entirely.

Or they would enforce it via the (unfortunately deprecated) do not track header.

Re: Why our website looks like an operating system

#184

Post by thwarted »

xp84 wrote: post #67
ttiurani wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. If they indeed only use the cookie for essential functionality, this kind of joke banner only makes their choice to respect visitors' privacy equally annoying. Even worse: because it makes it seem like the EU law is just meritless pestering of people, they are actually fighting for the right for worse sites to spy on their visitors. It's baffling.

> EU law is just meritless pestering of people It is that. It has done literally nothing to improve anything whatsoever, in any country. And most of the "cookie management" scripts that people use, barely even work. Both the law and the way it's complied with in practice are a dumb solution to a problem that the EU should have forced browser vendors to solve. Only the user's browser can choose not to send back cookie…

Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P) has existed for over 20 years and no one wanted to implement it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P3P

Re: Why our website looks like an operating system

#185

Post by troupo »

auggierose wrote: post #151
ttiurani wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. If they indeed only use the cookie for essential functionality, this kind of joke banner only makes their choice to respect visitors' privacy equally annoying. Even worse: because it makes it seem like the EU law is just meritless pestering of people, they are actually fighting for the right for worse sites to spy on their visitors. It's baffling.

If the EU was a serious entity, they would just forbid cookies that are non-essential. Simple as that. Either you take your responsibility as a law maker serious, or you refrain from making laws entirely.

As we all know, tracking is only reliant on cookies. And not things like "storing your geolocation for 12 years" https://x.com/dmitriid/status/1817122117093056541

People ranting against cookie banners and GDPR literally never read the regulation itself and they literally never read what these banners are supposed to trick you into

Re: Why our website looks like an operating system

#186

Post by euLh7SM5HDFY »

nine_k wrote: post #34

So, in short, this is because window management under macOS sucks big time (and under Windows, still leaves much to be desired), and because tabs in Chrome become indistinguishable if you open a couple dozen, since they are on top, instead of on the side (Firefox only recently gained an option to put tabs on the side). Watch legacy UI concepts that are so ingrained that people often don't notice how counterproductive…

> Firefox only recently gained an option to put tabs on the side

regained. And I don't think it was a long break at all. tree organization for those side tabs, now that took a lot of time to regain, after they ripped API used by TreeStyleTabs extension.

Re: Why our website looks like an operating system

#188

Post by troupo »

almosthere wrote: post #68
Retr0id wrote: post #33

> Legally-required cookie banner > PostHog.com doesn't use third-party cookies, only a single in-house cookie You're legally required to let me opt out of that cookie. Unless it's essential to the site functionality, in which case you don't need the banner at all.

Man it's 2025 and we still WANT to opt out of cookies visually? Why don't we just have browsers that just do that.

Ask your favorite advertising company: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45217269

Re: Why our website looks like an operating system

#189

Post by pembrook »

stevesimmons wrote: post #182
pembrook wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t usually go over well with regulators. If they have to prove their site is fully compliant in court it would become mighty expensive to do so. So, cookie banner it is.

That's not how the process works.

GDPR has nothing to do with cookie banners first of all.

Also, literally how the process works is, any citizen of an EU country files a complaint, and you’re suddenly at risk for millions in fines and have to prove compliance to an incompetent non-technical person to stop the inquiries.

It’s easier to throw up a banner, hence why most lawyers recommend this regardless of what you’re doing.

Re: Why our website looks like an operating system

#190

Post by oliwarner »

Retr0id wrote: post #33

> Legally-required cookie banner > PostHog.com doesn't use third-party cookies, only a single in-house cookie You're legally required to let me opt out of that cookie. Unless it's essential to the site functionality, in which case you don't need the banner at all.

Different jurisdictions differ. Even if you collect your own and it contains identifying points, laws like GDPR will require you to attain informed consent before you collect it, along with methods for people deleting their data, and a million et als.
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