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I hate the "cookie law" for this very reason. It just resulted in more popups which became at best white noise, at worst a genuine annoyance for users. Cookie-c

by nothis 8y ago

I hate the "cookie law" for this very reason. It just resulted in more popups which became at best white noise, at worst a genuine annoyance for users. Cookie-consent popups are a part of most ad-blockers, which should make you think. Instead, the end result should be less abuse and hoarding of data. In other words, ad services should be held accountable for what they collect, not just inform users that they collect your data. Cookies are actually the one thing you can control, it's in your browser, it's not the problem, you can block or delete the data. What should be regulated are what companies store server-side and how they connect that data and that should be done between the government and the companies, not between the company and its users who might not have the expertise and, in many cases, are stuck with some quasi-monopoly like Google or Facebook.

LiterallyDoge 8y ago
Of course. But if you recall when you first learned about information security, it would likely involve cookies. Probably the general population is going through that kind of adolescent awakening that we did when we were 10 or so, they just took longer because they sit on the shortbus in comparison.
bad_user 8y ago
People confuse GDPR with ePrivacy. GDPR is not about cookies and it’s not about mere informing of users, but about getting consent for data processing. Publishers and service providers are required to ask for consent, with clear language and the default is opt-out. Also from what I understand you can’t block users from using your service when they opt out of any data purpose that isn’t legitimate and the definition of legitimate data purposes is very narrow. For example it doesn’t really matter that ads profiling is how the company makes revenue, making more money is not a legitimate interest. Some companies, like Facebook, are of course trying to resist this. But I’m pretty sure they’ll end up with big fines. On popups, IAB’s specification uses the consensu.org domain for the cookie, so that consent can be shared between multiple domains. A publisher cannot share that consent with other publishers in case the list of partners used is custom of course, but you can still share it between your own domains. The purpose being to minimize the popups. Given that publishers have a legal obligation to get the user’s consent, I strongly believe that ad-blockers blocking GDPR popups is legal trouble for both publishers and ad-blockers. Blocking ads wasn’t deemed illegal thus far and it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Blocking GDPR pop-ups on the other hand will imo not have that same fate. Also some users will legitimately want to have their data used for personalization and you can’t regulate against that. This might be an unpopular opinion however given the choice between personalized ads and a paywall, I predict that most people will choose personalized ads.

by nothis 8y ago

LiterallyDoge 8y ago

Of course. But if you recall when you first learned about information security, it would likely involve cookies. Probably the general population is going through that kind of adolescent awakening that we did when we were 10 or so, they just took longer because they sit on the shortbus in comparison.

bad_user 8y ago

People confuse GDPR with ePrivacy. GDPR is not about cookies and it’s not about mere informing of users, but about getting consent for data processing. Publishers and service providers are required to ask for consent, with clear language and the default is opt-out. Also from what I understand you can’t block users from using your service when they opt out of any data purpose that isn’t legitimate and the definition of legitimate data purposes is very narrow. For example it doesn’t really matter that ads profiling is how the company makes revenue, making more money is not a legitimate interest. Some companies, like Facebook, are of course trying to resist this. But I’m pretty sure they’ll end up with big fines. On popups, IAB’s specification uses the consensu.org domain for the cookie, so that consent can be shared between multiple domains. A publisher cannot share that consent with other publishers in case the list of partners used is custom of course, but you can still share it between your own domains. The purpose being to minimize the popups. Given that publishers have a legal obligation to get the user’s consent, I strongly believe that ad-blockers blocking GDPR popups is legal trouble for both publishers and ad-blockers. Blocking ads wasn’t deemed illegal thus far and it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Blocking GDPR pop-ups on the other hand will imo not have that same fate. Also some users will legitimately want to have their data used for personalization and you can’t regulate against that. This might be an unpopular opinion however given the choice between personalized ads and a paywall, I predict that most people will choose personalized ads.