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Comment by elmerfud | Hacker News Reader

It was obvious to anyone technical they didn't work as they presented themselves to work, but it takes time for the courts to deal with such things.

They are also totally annoying and I suspect there primary purpose was to annoy users and not actually comply with the GDPR. It was a way for these companies to fight the GDPR with a war of attrition. I'm glad you see with this round hasn't worked... Yet.

I suspect that based on this ruling, things will not get better, as in providing a less annoying user experience and more compliance with the GDPR. Instead I predict another round of pseudo compliance and a more annoying user experience. Eventually they'll start a policy campaign in earnest stating that the GDPR is unworkable.

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You are right. I also believe many publishers knew this too but the IAB provides a shield of sorts and buys time when it is inevitably (as in now) ruled illegal.

Most ad-tech, and programatic advertising, is not compatible with GDPR. I think that is intentional on part of the EU - and something I am a fan of personally.

The industry needs to shift - contextual ads or other innovations - others have done this. They refused to self-regulate all these years and had opportunity to move away from their invasive practices.

It's hard to start doing this when your competitors keep playing by the old rules.

My hope is that ever more aggressive enforcement will finally lead us to the point where the dams break and everyone scrambles to get compliant at once.

The sooner, the better. But I realize that the legal system needs to ramp up the pressure, they cannot start with company-destroying fines on day one.

These rulings and fines keep me in good spirits, because I think we're actually getting there. Slowly, but still.

True, but the months ahead of GDR directive coming in was one of those potential moments.

Google kept promising us their own framework and consent system. They kept pushing the date to unveil it and as we ran out of time I had to build my own, and many others jumped into the IAB framework because of so few options (and it came down to the wire there too despite knowing for years this was in the works).

>> they cannot start with company-destroying fines on day one

I think they can - and the GDPR fines are linked to revenue - and I think they have no choice. Companies need to take this seriously.

>> Slowly, but still

I'll take slowly over backwards.

> I think they can

Certainly not. The courts would take a very dim view of that. You need to show through a series of regulatory interventions and escalating fines that you afforded those companies due process and that the fines are reasonable.

The maximum allowed under a law is virtually never reasonable in a first-time enforcement.

> Instead I predict another round of pseudo compliance and a more annoying user experience. Eventually they'll start a policy campaign in earnest stating that the GDPR is unworkable.

I predict all of this to fail, at considerable expense for the IAB and its clients. The GDPR is popular amongst us EU residents.

I hope it does fail. Although I'm not in the EU I like the ideas the GDPR puts forward.

My fear is that is legislation works in EU anything like it does in the US is that things that the people like but the corporations do not like... Well, corporate interests win out. I suspect that the whole reason the GDPR was allowed to pass was the corporations figured they could ignore it. Now finding out they can't they will fight in earnest.

I do hope I just being old and cynical and I'm ultimately wrong.

My not-yet-completely-cynical take is that EU still puts people before corporations, so we still have a chance to win. Fingers crossed.

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