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Comment by dennisgorelik | Hacker News Reader

> Given clear "I accept/I refuse" controls it wouldn't be any slower or difficult to quickly dismiss the dialog

1) It would definitely be slower than not having that dialogue at all (the less UI elements - the simpler).

Do you remember that typical user visits Google web site NOT to setup his privacy settings, but with a totally different goal (such as do web search)?

2) "Accept vs Deny" is easy to read, but how would most users know what choice is better for them?

In order to form a reasonable opinion on that cookie choice -- I personally spent multiple hours (if not days) of reading and thinking.

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> Do you remember that typical user visits Google web site NOT to setup his privacy settings, but with a totally different goal (such as do web search)?

EXACTLY! Why should the user then have to give up their privacy? All they wanted to do was a simple search, not be tracked and profiled. So it's the unneeded collecting of personal data that's the problem here, not the ux.

Being tracked and profiled is the cost of using google to do a simple search. No free lunch and all that.

>1) It would definitely be slower than not having that dialogue at all (the less UI elements - the simpler). >Do you remember that typical user visits Google web site NOT to setup his privacy settings, but with a totally different goal (such as do web search)?

I mean have you seen the current dialog you get when you get on a google domain with a "fresh" session? It's a wall of text with a scrollbar redirecting you to multiple other pages if you want to see what exactly Google collects. It's also pretty unclear what each link leads to and how to opt out of everything. Clearly they didn't really optimize for simplicity here, they're the only ones to blame for that.

I'm perfectly aware that people don't go to google.com specifically to setup privacy settings, and that's precisely what Google is counting on. By using an unnecessarily complex interface they hope that people will give up immediately and accept whatever Google is pushing.

>In order to form a reasonable opinion on that cookie choice -- I personally spent multiple hours (if not days) of reading and thinking.

Well that's your choice, my modus operandi is simpler: I systematically refuse everything I can refuse. That's quick and easy. I have yet to witness any degradation of my browsing experience.

I'd be curious to hear what kinds of dilemmas you've had while reading the terms and conditions that lead you to days of thinking.

> have you seen the current dialog you get when you get on a google domain with a "fresh" session?

I just checked - there is no such dialogue on google.com for me. I am in the US. GDPR does not apply here.

My conclusion is that the complex dialogue on google.com you are suffering -- is the result of GDPR. Without GDPR Google (and most other successful websites) delivers simplicity.

> I systematically refuse everything I can refuse.

You can refuse opening google.com in your browser. Do you refuse to open google.com?

> what kinds of dilemmas you've had

I carefully thought about whether I want unneeded complexity in my life or not.

My choice is "No GDPR and no complexity".

Your choice is GDPR which implies complexity (but you do not understand that "GDPR -> websites complexity" causation, because you did not think about that choice hard enough).

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