Abrogate the EU cookie laws
the directive that requires websites to get consent before dropping cookies on a user's device should be abrogated â or at very least heavily updated.
The ePrivacy Directive (ePD) has literally destroyed the web.
If it is politically impossible to abrogate it, we should change the mechanism â it should ask the suppliers of browsers to provide the users who want to micromanage their cookies a tab on the browser setting to do all the micromanaging they want.
For all normal users the cookies should always be automatically set to âallow all cookiesâ. No site should ever have to display a cookie banner. No penalty or fine should be imposed to websites due their cookie configurations.
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Comments16
Indigo Milkshake
Dec 15, 2024
I do agree, but the warning are also there for GDPR reasons so that needs to be update too. It could easily be a standard HTML tag that it is all done with, so that non-compliant browsers show the message, but others send the preferences in the headers so it does not need to for most people.
As much as the EU rule is annoying it shouldnât be up to them to create such systems though⊠I guess with W3C and Google being america focussed then they just havenât bothered. Which I guess brings us round to what the point of eu/acc is about that there isnât such big names in the EU that would care!
Crimson Island
Feb 8, 2025
I agree preferences about policy should be asked by the browser only once, and maybe a setting per website. Then these preferences should be shared to websites using a W3C standard.
Amethyst Candy
Dec 15, 2024
The cookie banners are not simply for collecting cookies, they are for collecting personally identifiable information. You donât need a cookie banner if youâre not collecting data youâre not supposed to be collecting.
You are allowed to collect cookies without consent if they are purely functional, or are in your legitimate interests and are not used for tracking.
Yes, browsers could include an option to set your cookie preferences globally so websites donât have to ask you every time, but this option will be opt-out by default, or at least encouraged to opt-out, which advertisers will push against.
Indigo Peacock
Dec 15, 2024
Yes please! This is a complete waste of time and energy, itâs not effective at all!
Crimson Island
Dec 16, 2024
If we could only have one magic bullet, would it be really this one? Cookie banners are indeed annoying but I donât see that GDPR and cookie banners are the great hinderance to growth.
Gold Orbit
Feb 19, 2025
âThe costs of complying with GDPR, for example, are estimated to have reduced profits for small European tech firms by up to 12 per cent.â - Draghi on the FT
https://www.ft.com/content/13a830ce-071a-477f-864c-e499ce9e6065
If true thatâs a 12% tax on startups.
Gold Orbit
Feb 21, 2025
âAfter talking to an AI startup from Europe in the current YC batch, it's clear that the GDPR conflicts with AI in an unforeseen way that will significantly harm European AI companies.â
https://x.com/paulg/status/1892719419769713043
Azure Tamarin
Dec 15, 2024
This one is pragmatic , low hanging fruit . love it
Emerald Alligator
Dec 15, 2024
For the love of god, letâs do this.
Our Google ads revenue tanked 40% after implementing cookies. So we put it reverted it a few days later. Google rep said that theyâve seen examples of it dropping even more, and then usually recovering mostly weeks later. Are we supposed to just deal with that? Yeah just take many âŹâŹâŹ of losses for a few weeks, it will be fine. The fine is probably less expensive than that.
Jade Petal
Dec 15, 2024
Much more useful than cookie banners would be a standardized privacy ânutrition labelâ (like the Apple App Store) thatâs browser readable, i.e. metadata that browsers could read & display similar to how they display SSL certs
Cyan River
Dec 15, 2024
I probably agree with deleting this legislation.
However it is worth noting that many times developers are affected by this unnecessarily.
A website only has to declare that it uses cookies if usersâ session state is kept on the server.
However, that is usually not desirable and is even incorrect if you follow REST as originally defined by Roy Fielding.
It is part of the Stateless constraint of REST:
> Session state is therefore kept entirely on the client.
https://ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/rest_arch_style.htm#sec_5_1_3
Instead keep the session on the client. Use something like JWT to carry the session state (username, roles/permissions, etc.).
Indigo Straw
Dec 15, 2024
The browser privacy settings are completely sufficient, no need for website based policies
Indigo Peacock
Dec 16, 2024
Making it mandatory to give me access to my data if I want to modify it, delete it, etc. Yes. But get rid of those damn popups.