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> Browsing the web in Europe is like experiencing the rebirth of the pop-up ads era. And this by itself says a lot, but not what people usually think it says.
by CrLf 7y ago
> Browsing the web in Europe is like experiencing the rebirth of the pop-up ads era.
And this by itself says a lot, but not what people usually think it says.
In fact, you don't need any kind of cookie popups _unless_ they're tracking cookies. Any reasonable use of cookies for site-specific reasons (authentication, session, csrf, load-balancing, settings) is already allowed with no need to opt-in[1].
The reason why cookie popups are so widespread is two-fold:
1. Because indeed most sites track you to death, and are unwilling to back off even if it costs them visits (many people just close the tab upon being presented with all but the least obnoxious popups). In this perspective, the GDPR is working as intended;
2. General ignorance about the cookie exceptions. You can hardly blame the regulators for that. In fact, AFAIK the GDPR clarified a few things that were ambiguous WRT cookies. That backfired horribly, but just beacause ignorance is rampant.
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/ipg/basics/legal/cookies/index_en.htm https://ec.europa.eu/ipg/basics/legal/cookies/index_en.htm
- rypskar 7y agoSo much this. Every time I see a popup with "We respect your privacy", I think "no you don't" and try to see if it is something I can block in privacy badger to remove the popup. If the site respect users privacy it will not track the users and don't need the warning
- mnw21cam 7y agoMore accurate - "We value your privacy". In other words, your privacy has value to them, and they are eager to shaft you that privacy to extract the value.
- TeMPOraL 7y agoThey value your privacy the same way a mugger values your wallet. They'll often even offer you a degraded experience if you don't consent.