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Comment by nemo44x | Hacker News Reader

The cookie disaster is a constant reminder that these government agencies need to be reeled in and limited. It’s also embarrassing that when I browse the web it’s more or less the EU’s single contribution. Good job!

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cookie popup is not a disaster, it forced companies to tell their users they are tracking them

user replaceable battery is important because what's most likely to die 1st in your electronics is the battery, if it is soldered, high chance you'll have to replace your whole thing, producing useless e-waste

i had to replace my electric toothbrush recently because the battery died, but the whole thing was still in perfect condition, such a waste

>cookie popup is not a disaster, it forced companies to tell their users they are tracking them

Now people know that they're being tracked. Great. They are still being tracked and now are being annoyed with the modals everywhere. Those of us that get bothered enough can install some extension to hide them, but the for most people it's just another annoying thing they have to click away in order to continue what they were intended to do.

Most of those banners and popups and "consent" dialogs are illegal under GDPR. And the parasites behind the biggest networks of them are slowly but surely getting what they deserve https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/05/iab-europe-tcf-gdpr-breach...

Even fully compliant dialogs are a pain in the ass. It's why addons like "I don't care about cookies"[1] exist.

[1]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/i-dont-care-about-...

Arrive on page, click "reject all", done. That's what it's like with fully compliant pages.

I prefer skipping the second step and not having government-mandated boilerplate interrupting my browsing at all. For something so bloody inconsequential, dismissing the warning is of more import than selecting an option.

Inconsequential? Without cookies of this nature the surveillance economy would have had a harder time getting off the ground. We're just numbed to it now because we've been continuously assaulted for decades.

Yes, inconsequential. As in, there are no tangible consequences to me (or likely anyone else) regardless of what option I select.

1. You don't need a dialog at all if you only use data that's strictly required for the functionality of your website.

There. Problem solved. In a different discussion someone even linked a great example of a GDPR-compliant site: https://github.com

See? Easy

2. Okay, for some reason you decide to collect more data. Just as easy:

You present the user with a simple accept/reject, where "reject" is clearly labeled, is the default selected option, and the website continues working when the user choses "reject"

See? Easy.

Those "pain-in-the-ass dialogs"? If they are pain in the ass, they are not compliant.

Any popup in my face is a PITA. I don't care about cookies, your newsletters, or coupons. Get out of my way and let me browse.

> Get out of my way and let me browse.

So, your beef is with people who implement all this.

We had that before the EU stepped in.

Ah yes, it's the EU that makes the web sites pester you with newsletters and coupons. It's the Eu that makes the web sites sell you data to literally hundreds of advertisers and trackers. Bad, bad EU.

> Now people know that they're being tracked. Great. They are still being tracked and now are being annoyed with the modals everywhere

And now when I tell people 'companies are tracking you' noone calls me a conspiracy theorist any more. They say- yes they are.

Mission accomplished, this policy gets my vote

Reminds me of California’s prop 65: everywhere and on everything you can buy there is a warning that the place/thing could cause cancer. Technically true, but the information isn’t actionable because it is so broad.

all phones and laptops have user replaceable batteries, it just some users too stupid to do it properly. i wonder if, after some tragic incidents including lithium and screwdrivers, the next requirement of the eu bureaucrats will be that companies do test that battery can be replaced by the handicapped body positive 15 years old trans girl with iq no more than 80.

It is embarrassing that probably you are not aware on how ironic and stupid your comment is, since the web was started at CERN

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_World_Wide_Web#...

so you might want to update your limited general knowledge or comment only on topics you really know what you are talking about. You see cookies because

1 the website wants to track you

2 the website ad-partners want to track you

3 the web developers are idiots and don't know that non-tracking cookies don't need a NAG popup

BTW GDPR is more then cookies, it is applied in real life too. Also it has benefits like forcing websites to implement a delete my account functionality too.

Saying the web started at CERN is about as much intelligent as saying the internet was originally a US military communications network.

But nobody here denied that the US military has contributed to the Internet we're using for this very discussion. Someone did, however, claim that "GDPR cookies are the EU's only contribution to the WWW!", either ignoring or ignorant of the fact that the Web was invented at the EU-funded (and -founded?) CERN.

So your equivalence is invalid.

> It’s also embarrassing that when I browse the web it’s more or less the EU’s single contribution.

This just indicate that you are unaware of the requirements of GDPR.

I’m aware the EU companies can’t produce any meaningful web tech so their bureaucracies legislate ridiculous things like GDPR. I get a little reminder every time I go to a website that the EU exists for some reason. They can’t sanction Russia, expect the USA (while constantly harboring anti-Americanism)to “do something” and pollute the web with these pop ups everywhere.

Honestly sounds like you are just being jealous of the benefits we get over here. Not sure that's what you wanted to achieve.

US companies curb stomped the rest of the world and ate up all the market share others needed to survive. The only country that has a non-US centric internet ecology is China, because they intentionally blocked western companies.

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