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European Authorities Ban Dirty Cookie Practices in GDPR Update:
When GDPR rolled out across the European Union back in 2018, the sweeping legal framework pledged to bring consumer privacy and protection to the forefront. In the years since then, we've seen the adtech industry at large do its collective darnedest to undermine these laws at every turn, and largely get away with it, thanks in part to the squishy phrasing of some of the legislation's most critical clauses.
Now, European authorities are stepping in to cut that squishiness a bit. On Monday, the European Data Protection Board—the Union's oversight committee for GDPR-related issues—released a 31-page manual (pdf) calling out some of the slimier practices used by adtech companies to fudge consent on an internet browser's behalf.
These new guidelines specifically call out the sites that assume a user's agreement to be tracked and targeted based on say, the way they scroll down a webpage, rather than relying on their explicit agreement to that deal. Also called out in the memo are "cookie walls"—a cute name for the not-so-cute tactic where sites bar internet browsers from accessing their content unless they agree to allowing cookies and trackers on the site.
These are both tactics that directly step on the concept of user consent. [...] GDPR was written to require that websites garner a visitor's consent before they handle that visitor's data, and before they pass that data down the garbled supply chain of third parties in the adtech ecosystem. As you might imagine, the GDPR painstakingly lays out exactly what does and doesn't qualify as consent, requiring that, in short, these websites explain the tech used to track the visitors in a clear and upfront way. It also requires that they offer these visitors an easy way to opt in or out of this sort of on-page tech.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by gtomorrow on Thursday May 07 2020, @01:39PM (25 children)
One of the reasons I ♥ EU.
And before all you zombies start talking about paying the bills and making money, let me tell you kids...I remember an internet that was ad-free. And I'm betting a good percentage of the (for lack of the proper term) people here do too.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @01:52PM (6 children)
My Internet is still pretty much ad-free.
(Score: 2) by rob_on_earth on Thursday May 07 2020, @02:12PM (2 children)
Not sure if you are referring to adblock/ublock and noscript etc, but there is still a lot of sites (in number) that refuse to have ads. It is lot harder to find them as Google seems to promote the ad laden the highest.
Hmmm, how could I make money on a search engine that only returns sites that have no ads ... ?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @02:53PM
You could put ads on your site?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @03:57PM
It's not exactly going to be a fair fight. Even if you make it work, the bastards will come after you for screwing with "their money".
This I think is how WW3 starts. The EU, trying to do the right thing, annoys too many people with too many rotten interests. Unfortunately including the USA which currently finds itself on the same side as Russia, Hungary and North Korea regarding the Rule of Law. They're for YOU not ME.
(Score: 2) by gtomorrow on Thursday May 07 2020, @02:23PM (2 children)
How many hoops did you have to jump through? Or do you have some magic browser that is just plug-and-play, so to speak, that returns your browsing experience to pre-Google 1990s-level tracking/spying/eternal cookies?
Yeah, maybe I didn't express myself previously in the exacting terms needed to be "understood" by the Autism Spectrum disorder crowd here.
BTW, Firefox here with μBlock Origin/HTTPS Everywhere/Privacy Badger/Disconnect/Decentraleyes >> Not non-trivial.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @04:01PM (1 child)
TrackMeNot, DeCentralEyes, and about 10 FF about:config hacks. Easy peasy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ef5dRyvQ1Y [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by gtomorrow on Thursday May 07 2020, @05:19PM
You've just illustrated my original point.
And I made a big mistake in my previous comment: I meant to say "Non-trivial" and NOT "Not non-trivial," or as you said, "easy-peasy." Yes, I know DL'ing and installing an add-on isn't bricklaying, but it is a bunch of extra work that requires a modicum of homework before installation.
Look at all the virtual barbed wire we've had to put around our browser's perimeter. And we're using Firefox! Think if we were talking Chrome or Edge! The horror!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 07 2020, @02:53PM (1 child)
Well, I remember that too, but some people say I'm no good, so I can't be part of that good percentage . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuAMm2Ub-60 [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by gtomorrow on Thursday May 07 2020, @03:28PM
Why do the two have to be mutually exclusive?
And who told you that anyway? I'll take 'em outside and teach 'em a lesson! ❤️😄
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @04:58PM (2 children)
oh yeah, thanks for saving me from my own freedom to make decisions. sycophantic slaves.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by gtomorrow on Thursday May 07 2020, @06:00PM (1 child)
While there are volumes and volumes of questionable laws and regulations on the books of every region on this planet, I respectfully submit that the subject at hand is not one of them. I don't want to be sold out and spied upon nine times over just to read an article on a website...but you do? Are robocalls a good idea in your opinion? I guess you have the freedom to not answer the phone, even 20 times a day. It's your "choice," right?
Wait a minute...I bet you're one of those "people" more concerned with going to the beach instead of not spreading a devastating virus. Freedom over stupidity uber alles, damn the consequences! NB: I didn't say "Security over freedom," just to be crystal clear.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 09 2020, @06:32PM
no, i won't visit those sites anyways, b/c i'm not an ignorant slave.
robocallers can't get my number b/c i run my own pseudo phone company using voip.
Regarding the beach, i don't know why you twist the point by acting like just b/c people are in favor of freedom , they must also in favor if irresponsibility.
I'm for people keeping their natural born rights. That does not mean i advocate that they should be able to violate your rights.
I am not responsible for dictating how you raise or don't even birth your kids.
that's on you.
i'm also not responsible for invisible viruses and your immune system.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @05:13PM (9 children)
Well done for supporting legislative overreach for a non-issue when the client side was already 100% under user control. The end result of this stupidity is that server-side geofencing is widely used to restrict access to connections from the EU, meaning people employed abroad or with dual citizenship need a VPN to get hometown news. Yay freedom?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @05:50PM (8 children)
You think you are in control? Think again.
(Score: 2) by gtomorrow on Thursday May 07 2020, @06:21PM (7 children)
Thank you, AC, for replying for me to the AC above you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @06:54PM (6 children)
Avoiding the argument by siding with an idiot who doesn't understand the difference between having control of your own affairs and permitting psychopaths to control you? More telling than you realize.
(Score: 3, Informative) by gtomorrow on Thursday May 07 2020, @07:37PM (5 children)
...says yet another psychopath looking to control me.
Look, I've said what I've had to say. Entertain yourself by reading my other comments...or don't.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @09:37PM (4 children)
Why am I looking to control you? If you want to believe the EU enacted GDPR for your benefit rather than to ringfence commerce and information, that's okay. It's okay to be wrong!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @10:08PM (3 children)
"ringfence commerce and information"
You'll have to provide better support for your argument than that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @11:33PM (2 children)
You should Google the term "trade block". It's going to blow your mind!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2020, @12:13AM (1 child)
-1 doesn't know what they're talking about.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2020, @05:56PM
IKR and after I'd pointed them in the right [hbr.org] direction [taxamo.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @05:48PM (2 children)
I remember it too. Remember when Web Crawler and Ask Jeeves were the best searches available (there was a reason early Google took over... and I maintain an early Google would steal a large market share from modern Google with its bubbling and inconsistent search results...)? Remember when you followed web rings, hoping to find another interesting website? Remember when if you were lucky, you might have a phone number for a nearby store so you can call them to see what they had in stock?
The inclusion of advertisement money has done much to make the current web as great (and terrible) as it is. I'm not even 100% convinced we'd have the cheat bandwidth we have (remember when a T1 line was that expensive thing people aspired to?) if it wasn't for the money advertisement brought with it.
I hate ads as they currently are, but let's not imagine that the introduction of big-money has done nothing for the benefit of the Internet.
(Score: 2) by gtomorrow on Thursday May 07 2020, @06:17PM
Okay, Grey...move away slowly from the computer with your hands up...
I will concede some of your points regarding "the big money;" I'm not that naive to think the infrastructure grew out of nothing. That said, at what point does the intrusion stop? I just want to read a recipe and not submit to a virtual cavity search. I used to see it as (antiquated example) that guy on the subway reading your newspaper over your shoulder. It's long gone beyond that: that guy is reading your newspaper over your shoulder while you're on the toilet at home...and he knows what brand of toilet paper you buy.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Thursday May 07 2020, @09:01PM
The thing is, ads are quite possible without darting and tagging you like a wild bear. There's no need for them to jump out at you from every corner.