New laws – well, I never – are to be introduced to control cookies on the web. From Europe, too. You’d never have thought of that one, eh? So what is it that is so bad that we need the protection of our European overlords. Cookies, that’s what.
Okay, from a privacy point of view, I don’t like tracking cookies. They have their uses when you revisit a web page, but the idea of tracking me so that I can be targeted by a plethora of advertising is irritating. However, I don’t need a law to protect me for advertising, I have Adblock Plus for that. Indeed, I cannot recall the last time I saw an advert on a web page. And as for cookies, I can tailor my web browser using the privacy settings. I can even set the browser to delete the cookies when I exit. IE does the same and I presume other browsers likewise. So what’s the problem? If I want targeted ads, I can have them. If I don’t, I can do as I do now and browse advert free. I don’t need the protection of the benevolent dictators in Brussels to save me from the wickedness of website owners, I’m all grown up now and can do it all by myself.
It could mean that after 25 May, users see many more pop-up windows and dialogue boxes asking them to let sites gather data.
Y’see, I would prefer that bureaucrats and politicians left well alone – because pop-ups are incredibly annoying. A damn sight more annoying than those adverts I don’t see. I believe the term is unintended consequences. Something that happens every time that the idle minds of the politicians think that something needs to be done.
When did the EU hallucinate that the whole web was under it’s jurisdiction anyway?
So more evidence of a governmental body making things worse than they were before. Figures.