EU Wakes Up To Annoyance of "Cookie Law" - (deprecated) UK Search and Internet Marketing News forum at WebmasterWorld - WebmasterWorld

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EU Wakes Up To Annoyance of "Cookie Law"

engine

4:47 pm on Jan 11, 2017 (gmt 0)

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It's taken a while for the "institution" to finally awaken from it's apparent slumber over the EU Directive on Cookies, commonly know as the "cookie law" and how annoying it has become. Those of you that are in the EU will know how frustrating it can be to get a popup describing cookies on pretty much every site, and the required compliance to proceed. I wonder if the people sitting in the offices in Brussels stated talking about how annoying it is, and whether they actually realised it's something "they" devised.

It seems it's proposing simplifying the "cookie provision" which "has resulted in an overload of consent requests for internet users, will be streamlined."

New rules will allow users to be more in control of their settings, providing an easy way to accept or refuse the tracking of cookies and other identifiers in case of privacy risks. The proposal clarifies that no consent is needed for non-privacy intrusive cookies improving internet experience (e.g. to remember shopping cart history). Cookies set by a visited website counting the number of visitors to that website will no longer require consent.

[europa.eu...]

Earlier discussions on the "Cooke Law"
Does Brexit mean UK sites can get rid of Cookie Warnings? [webmasterworld.com]
EU Cookie Law: How's it Going For You? [webmasterworld.com]
Seeing more sites with cookie warning popups [webmasterworld.com]

IanTurner

5:33 pm on Jan 11, 2017 (gmt 0)

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My first reaction when seeing the title was woohoo and as I read on it appears it is just a start.

graeme_p

6:02 am on Jan 12, 2017 (gmt 0)

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Why do we need a cookie law at all? Better educate people about cookie settings and rely on existing regulation about personal information.
It does absolutely no good (because everyone just clicks OK) and causes problems itself (e.g. I no longer use cookie white listing because it increases the annoyance).

engine

9:28 am on Jan 12, 2017 (gmt 0)

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Why do we need a cookie law at all?

That horse bolted a long time back, as you can see from some of the linked examples above, and I agree, btw.

Sanitising it is the best we can hope, and it cannot come soon enough.

Dimitri

2:51 pm on Jan 12, 2017 (gmt 0)

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May be I'll say something stupid, but I think that the EU should set the consent requirement at the level of the web browser, instead of each individual site. The law should say that when a cookie is detected, the web browser would warm the user, to accept or not, (and with an option to "always" accept, or "always accept for this site"). This would also be easier to deal with a limited number of web browser than millions of sites.

IanTurner

3:12 pm on Jan 12, 2017 (gmt 0)

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Totally agree Dimitri

Xpat

3:28 pm on Jan 12, 2017 (gmt 0)

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I voted for Brexit. Nothing more to add.

Dimitri

3:50 pm on Jan 12, 2017 (gmt 0)

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@Xpat: hahahaha :-)

engine

3:59 pm on Jan 12, 2017 (gmt 0)

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Sadly, Xpat, what was voted for will make no difference to this as it's set by the local regulator, and would mean that once the UK leaves the EU it can make it's own decisions, however, I suspect there will be many more pressing issues that require re-working before we see the end to this farce. I suspect we're stuck with it for the foreseeable future.

TechNoob

7:12 pm on Jan 12, 2017 (gmt 0)

I agree with Dimitri as well. It shouldn't be the responsibility of an individual company to educate users on how technology works. Perhaps the Browser should man this initiative.

Or even better, someone should develop a browser extension (like Ad Block Plus) that a user can install to manage Cookies with a library of resources that explains it, including quick video tutorials (because people really need their hand held).

And it could be called "Cookie Cutter".

I should patent this.

Dimitri

7:27 pm on Jan 12, 2017 (gmt 0)

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@TechNoob : there are already plenty of browser extensions, which are "protecting" your privacy online. And web browsers all have "private" mode too.

Xpat

8:27 pm on Jan 12, 2017 (gmt 0)

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engine I agree with your wise words of course. Nevertheless, bearing in mind the bigger issues at play, while leaving them aside, the fact I haven't lived in the EU for 15 years apparently doesn't excuse me from the Eurocrats and their self justifying whitterings. I manage a couple of servers UK side and I take advantage of them to enjoy the offerings on the iPlayer, one of the few things that keeps my sanity on an even keel in this savage land. Migration, economic meltdown, pffffft, pales into insignificance at the fact I'm asked for consent even though I'm here. Well I guess it's all my fault for my trickery. The grinding pointlessness of it all makes my urine boil.

FranticFish

9:38 am on Jan 13, 2017 (gmt 0)

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Never bothered to add these, but then we never ever use anything beyond sessions unless someone creates an account or requests directly and explicitly to be remembered beyond their visit - at which point they read some Ts & Cs.

For sessions, it was always going to be unenforceable. Can you see the headline? 'Website owner prosecuted for not informing users that certain actions are stored (only on the user's machine), until either (i) the user closes their browser or (ii) 30 minutes passes, at which point said information is deleted forever'. Sleepless nights :)

tangor

10:34 am on Jan 13, 2017 (gmt 0)

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Yet another example of good intentions and bad advice given the force of law where all lose and hearts are turned hard and unintended consequences abound.

Or:

Didn't work! Sam, call up the tech boys and see what we did wrong!

or:

Kewl! Time for new amendments to justify keeping our jobs as legislators .... (Sam, call the tech boys and see what we can rule on now!)

Just another day on the net which is increasingly coming under intrusions by governments and ruling bodies world wide. Just makes the work day a bit more difficult. Sigh.

jambam

12:13 pm on Jan 13, 2017 (gmt 0)

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I think we need a packet law for each individual packet a user should have to press okay to accept it. But obv first you need to accept the packets for the popup to accept the packets. :)

surfgatinho

12:16 pm on Jan 13, 2017 (gmt 0)

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Has anyone been prosecuted under this law yet? Not as far as I know.

Maybe they have bigger worries such as Brexit, failure of the Italian banking sector, rise of populism etc...

Dimitri

2:04 pm on Jan 13, 2017 (gmt 0)

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No one has might have been prosecuted, but, for example, if you don't comply with the EU cookie laws, you can be banned from Google Adsense...

In all events, excepting a very small number of sites, none of us are really respecting the EU cookie laws. Because, if I don't make mistake, the law says that you need to receive the consent of the visitor BEFORE writing a cookie. which means that the only (few) sites which are respecting the law, are those which are displaying a pop up message, that you need to approve or refuse before continuing to view the page. They do this before inserting ads/third party code, or other code which would generate a cookie.

ChanandlerBong

3:31 pm on Jan 13, 2017 (gmt 0)

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never bothered with it, still waiting for the knock at the door.

engine

3:47 pm on Jan 13, 2017 (gmt 0)

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If you were a google AdSense publisher google insisted you comply. We had a great debate on it, and it was best to meet the requirements, or, potentially, lose the account.
Google AdSense and Cookies (Cookie Law) [webmasterworld.com]

jecasc

10:24 am on Jan 14, 2017 (gmt 0)

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What is needed is a ban of all forms of tracking that bypass browser settings. The real problem is not cookies. The real problem are technologies like browser fingerprinting.Each individual has to be able to set what kind of tracking he accepts at the browser level. No need for popup messages. As a user I must be sure that I can set the level of tracking I am willing to except at the browser level and that these settings are not bypassed by tracking that does not rely on cookies.

I voted for Brexit. Nothing more to add.

Congratulations. In the future you will have to follow all kinds of EU regulations without being represented at the table when these regulations are made. Just like the Swiss and the Norwegians.

Xpat

6:49 am on Jan 15, 2017 (gmt 0)

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I'm sorry you feel this dead horse needs resurrecting, but even if you are correct about that, it doesn't seem to have done the Swiss or Norwgians any harm. And really, does it matter, any more than it matters we follow the rules of any other trading block. Bremainers are still clinging onto some hope their dire predictions will come true. They won't</endOffTopic>

Mass migration and the other big issues are the important ones of course, but these silly, superfluous but incredibly irritating cookie laws et al are equally powerful drivers that drove people to vote to leave.

[edited by: IanTurner at 12:22 pm (utc) on Jan 15, 2017]
[edit reason] Removed political content [/edit]

graeme_p

9:10 am on Jan 22, 2017 (gmt 0)

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@Xpat, I registered as an overseas voter for the first time, just for that reason. VATMOSS is another silly EU regulation that is relevant to us (at least anyone selling any kind of digital downloads in EU).

@Dimitri, I used to use the Firefox Cooke Whitelist extension which does a very good job - but now it makes every page show a cookie warning on any EU site because the site cannot set the cookie that tracks whether you have agreed to cookies or not...