The other approach to killing the cookie banner is simply to declare that such a thing cannot constitute “informed consent”. (Perhaps: “ticking a checkbox and/or clicking a button cannot constitute informed consent”; and see what they try next.) From a factual perspective, I honestly think that shouldn’t be controversial: it’s well-understood that very few people actually read those things, they just want to get them out of the way. Just as shrink-wrap licenses and even simple contracts have at times in some jurisdictions essentially been neutered, so that only terms that a reasonable person would expect to be there are enforceable, at which point it becomes obvious that the whole thing needs tearing down in favour of standard licenses/contracts. In the Australian state Victoria, for example, there are standard rent and property sale contracts; for renting you must use that contract <https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/housing/renting/starting-and...>, and I got the impression that residential sales practically always use the standard contract.

But of course it’s impossible to convince someone of something when their livelihood depends on their not understanding it.

> Tired of misleading cookie banners? The EU Commission has finally proposed a solution: set your privacy preferences in the browser once, and never see another banner.

So lawmakers do know how to make legally binding preferences based on device settings? What a crazy innovation.. now if only parents were given these options to indicate their child is using a device.. we could do away with all this Online Safety Act nonsense...

Wow, finally. This would be a major quality of life update for browsing the web. As others have stated, not all sites merit the same preferences. Hopefully they can adapt a middleground of default settings with the ability to customize site by site.

Even well meaning bodies like TFL (Transport for London) have cookie warnings that impede the actual access of the website.

Need to look up a bus time? Full screen cookie consent with accept buttons drawn OFF THE SCREEN.

> automated signals that would communicate your privacy preferences between your device and websites or apps0

Sounds good, as long as it covers the "legitimate interest" bollocks⁰ that is often hidden in inconvenient UI nests as well as the basic preference.

-------

[0] "we see your preference not to be stalked, but we want to anyway, click again for every partner to reconfirm you don't want them following you around"

> Tired of misleading cookie banners? The EU Commission has finally proposed a solution: set your privacy preferences in the browser once, and never see another banner. Unfortunately, the tracking industry is pushing back – and so far, they’ve been successful.

> ...

> You may think that EU privacy law requires cookie banners. But the law is clear: online tracking is prohibited by default.

That's an excellent idea... lets see how its implemented on https://european-union.europa.eu/index_en

Oh... there's a cookie banner.

I still don't get why every website has a cookie banner by default. I am data controller for several companies and have lots of exposure to GDPR. All my websites have no cookie banner, as they are not required.

I guess that most companies just chuck it up there as a default so they dont have to read the law, or maybe they are all actually harvesting and selling personal data and therefore require cookies? Who knows.

Also there's a big difference between the sites that easily allow you to simply reject whatever their premade cookie settings are. And, the sites that only allow you to use them after you've accepted (example, politico.eu). Or, the sites that do have a 'reject' option, but you have to click through multiple screens and then manually reject each individual option.

Sites that easily allow you to simply reject everything are then a short hop, skip and a jump into browser settings where you auto-reject all cookie/tracking nonsense

And guess who makes the most of devices and the most popular browser, I already see post install "Get most of the browsing experience by agreeing to these defaults."

Nice try but it won’t work, unless they were to also make it illegal to diversify the experience based on these settings and periodically but consistently issue massive fines to those who do (or who ignore such settings), which unfortunately ain’t happening.

An easier step forward could be to make the too often present ridiculous use of dark patterns and endless process to express your lack of consent illegal (and issue colossal fines…)

It's a "Dick over".

What does enforcement of not having these banners look like? Wha tif people just... didn't.

Yes please!

> he EU Commission finally proposed a solution to the cookie banner problem: automated signals that would communicate your privacy preferences between your device and websites or apps.

It wasn't on EU Commission to "finally propose a solution". The soluton has always been there.

Somehow, Google, aka world's largest tracking and advertising company incidentally making the worlds' dominant browser and completely dominating all web standards, couldn't be bothered, and instead was pushing crap like FLoC

The insanity around cookie banners is a good target.

> Tired of misleading cookie banners? The EU Commission has finally proposed a solution: set your privacy preferences in the browser once, and never see another banner.

Fortunately, if you have uBlock Origin, you can enable Easylist cookie notices under annoyances and avoid most of them. Combine with blocking third-party cookies, and the problem pretty much disappears.

The fact that the EU tried to regulate this stuff is a shame, because regulation is not a good remedy. End-users have agency here. The solution is to enable end-users to have control in their browser (which they always did, so it's an issue of education, like so many things).

Shame that Google is trying to kill uBO though. Extremely pleased that Brave continues to support it.

Usually government mandating something is concerning cause it seems to favor the government for its existence. However with EU commission its actually interesting combination, its representing multiple individual governments at once which somehow works good for the citizens.

Overall this is a common sense solution. The challenge is that a significant industry makes money by collecting and selling data. It makes it harder for businesses who depend on it, they are going to get creative and will eventually come up with some dark pattern to circumvent it.

As if the DNT thingy didn’t exist…

No, please don't!

It's great. The current law forces people that don't give a shit about user privacy to have a banner (or any other way of asking for consent first) while giving everyone that cares and everyone not wanting to spy on their visitor a free pass.

uBlock Origin with all "annoyance" filters enabled. I haven't seen a cookie banner in years.

Another good one to have the "hide Youtube shorts" filter, featured on HN a while back.

Keep fighting! For now: browser plugins.

Doesn't this lead to an all-or-nothing approach?

I don't want randomnewssite to track me. But a favorite online store...I do want help with recommendations.

or we could glass the continent

[flagged]

[dead]

[dead]

The EU has been on a decade-long crusade to destroy the internet.

This is conflating different things. They are trying to use people's annoyance with the banner THEY caused to build support for another legislation.

Cookies were never a problem. Just get rid of the banner.

This other legislation should pass/fail on its own merit.