Cookie banners - The sequel
I recently wrote about the EU’s Digital Omnibus and some of the ways it could weaken the GDPR. But there is one good thing lurking in there.
It’s called “Article 88b” (creative naming, I know) and the idea behind it is quite simple: instead of dealing with the usual cookie banners, you set your tracking preferences once inside your browser, then every website has to respect them. No more cookie wall hellscape.
This isn’t actually new, there have been attempts before.
In 2009, when consent requirements for tracking were first added to the law, it said consent could be given via browser settings. The ad industry completely ignored this and went ahead building the banner dystopia we know today. Then they blamed Brussels for it.
Again in 2017, the commission put forward a proposal to make browser-level consent obligatory. A lobbying campaign by Google got it killed.
Now, like any good Hollywood franchise, it’s back. And it’s inside the omnibus.
The villains are back for the sequel too. The same companies that brought us cookie banners (Google, Meta and the AdTech industry) are warning that letting people choose privacy will somehow be bad for them.
The rest of the digital omnibus still needs pushback, but Article 88b really deserves our support.
It’s one of the rare proposals that would make our browsing lives so much simpler and better. But it would cost the surveillance/ad industry, which explains why they’re fighting it so hard.
Colin