Europe's Cookie Law Messed Up the Internet. Brussels Wants to Fix It

Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago

mvdwoord

10 points

12 comments

politico.euTechstory

heatednegative

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Cookie LawEU RegulationsOnline Privacy

Key topics

Cookie Law

EU Regulations

Online Privacy

The EU's cookie law has caused widespread issues with cookie banners on websites, sparking debate about its effectiveness and the motivations behind it, with some arguing it's been misinterpreted and others seeing it as a necessary measure to protect privacy.

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Discussion (12 comments)

Showing 12 comments

nabla9

3 months ago

2 replies

>privacy rules that force websites to run cookie banners.

This is such bullshit and common misconcepton.

Websites DO NOT have to run cookie banners!

If you only have necessary cookie for session and do not track users, you don't have to show cookie banner. Websites that want to invade privacy must run cookie banner to ask permission.

mvdwoordAuthor

3 months ago

1 reply

>a law called the e-Privacy Directive to require websites to get consent from users before loading cookies on their devices, unless the cookies are “strictly necessary” to provide a service. Fast forward to 2025 and the internet is full of consent banners that users have long learned to click away without thinking twice.

I think that is the issue here.

bloak

3 months ago

1 reply

Yes, clicking "Customize" then "Reject all" is annoying, but it beats "Copy link address", "New Incognito window", then paste and return.

nabla9

3 months ago

The obvious regulatory improvement is that reject-all is default and all other options must be harder to get.

ps. Current solution is use browser extension to automate rejection.

Consent-O-Matic

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/consent-o-mat...

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/consent-o-matic/mdj...

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/consent-o-matic/id1606897889

unmole

3 months ago

1 reply

> Websites that want to invade privacy must run cookie banner to ask permission.

Why does the EU want to invade my privacy? https://european-union.europa.eu/index_en

Gravityloss

3 months ago

https://european-union.europa.eu/cookies_en I'm certainly not a web developer expert, maybe someone can break this down.

juliangmp

3 months ago

2 replies

Ah yeah the banners are the problem, not the fact that almost every website out there wants to know every detail of my entire life...

harel

3 months ago

1 reply

Actually yes the banners bring up cookie rage. When in cookie rage I'll click anything to make that banner go away. And then repeat the next visit. The banners make me not care. Give me a global in browser setting for that.

nabla9

3 months ago

1 reply

If you look other answers here you find a solution.

harel

3 months ago

I don't want those banners. I don't want extensions or artificial solutions to a manufactured problem. I want to set up my preference in my browser, once, and have it respected by all sites i visit. I'm not sure why my comment was downvoted for stating a personal preference. For me, those banners do the opposite of what they were meant to.

unmole

3 months ago

> almost every website

When https://european-union.europa.eu/index_en has a cookie banner, it's entirely fair to blame the EU.

Until quite recently even https://gdpr.eu/ had a cookie banner. They finally got around to fixing that irony.

mvdwoordAuthor

3 months ago

Makes you wonder, what other things did the EU mess up, and which of those do they want to fix..

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ID: 45344552Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 4:47:35 PM

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