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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: 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.