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Comment by anoncake | Hacker News Reader

> To our astonishment, a number of users said that they wouldn’t read the information in the boxes. They likened them to advertising on news sites

Well done, ad people. I hope you didn't kill anyone.

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While banner blindness has been a thing for some time, this takes it to a new level. Apparently years of "You've won a £50 Amazon Gift Card!" and fake software update bottom-of-the-barrel advertisements have engendered a broader disregard of genuine alert messages than previously understood.

This seems to invite its own study.

Anything that looks like an ad will be largely ignored. This has been understood for over 20 years now. However, flashy looking boxes have always been the first idea that pops into anyones head, so here we are.

Ironically, the exact same site greets users with a cookie warning, training them towards the behavior they were surprised about.

Brexit can provide them a way to remove that nonsense. I mean they will be free to adjust their local laws away from EU regulations where needed.

Many sites outside EU jurisdiction still abide by EU privacy/cookie laws. Not all for sure. It is typically easier for a developer to target the most demanding laws for all users vs different experiences and more code paths to dynamically offer based on region. I don’t expect anything to change in this regard.

The bigger problem about these nag screens is the poor UX. I often just accept the defaults because it is far, far quicker than trying to find the Opt out option. I especially hate sites that then take you to a config screen to pick and choose from providers. All I want is a binary Yes or No, with each option getting equal equivalence in the UI.

> I often just accept the defaults because it is far, far quicker than trying to find the Opt out option.

That is why opt-out is illegal.

Agreed. I guess the sites I'm complaining about are technically opt-in by legal terms, although opt-out in usability terms (making the no tracking option far more hassle than the yes tracking option)

The legal definition of "opt-out" is exactly the same as the "usability" definition: if you need to click anything other than "OK" in order to opt out of being tracked, then it's opt-in.

Which means that

> Many sites outside EU jurisdiction still abide by EU privacy/cookie laws.

is completely wrong. I would not be surprised if those popups put many sites out of compliance because they mean that the site is targeted at EU citizens.

Or just not track people [with cookies] when it's not essential?

Sure, and get 350 mln a week to fund NHS.

The UK weakening privacy laws when they can do so actually sounds very plausible.

The cynic in me now expects advertisers to adopt these techniques in future ads. What works well for content creators likely works for advertisers too. It’s sadly a cat and mouse game.

It's already there.... native ads, designed to fit perfectly in the content around it

Adding this to my ever-growing list of examples why advertising is a cancer on society.

I also notice myself missing road signs while driving in areas with lots of advertising.

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