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thomas-st | 3 years ago

I wish cookie settings were part of the browser (e.g. I want to reject all marketing cookies but not essential ones), have a way in JS/HTTP to indicate the type of the cookie, and never see those cookie popups again.

discuss

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nikeee|3 years ago

It's not just cookies, it affects all client-side storage that can be used to track people. This means that this kind of API would also be needed for localStorage etc. This is where it things will get complicated.

I don't know if it exists, but it would probably be a good thing to have aria labels for those common buttons on these popups. It would benefit a11y and pave the way for a better automatic approve/reject by the browser (or some plugins). I think it won't end up in a disaster like the DNT header.

There are (at least) two problems with this approach: it requires that the banners actually use these labels (which they might not want to) and if it requires some kind of browser support, the largest browser vendor is also in the tracking business.

ketzu|3 years ago

It is not just client storage either, it could also be ephemereal computed fingerprinting with server side tracking.

rocqua|3 years ago

Many of these cookies settings can be 'unset' by browser-settings. The HTTP server can set cookies all it wants, but if your browser throws them away between sessions, they can't be used to track you between sessions. (They still can aid tracking you within sessions, to what degree that is bad depends on the specific definition of 'sessions').

Firefox has a pretty decent system for this I believe. They also try to go against alternatives like 'local-storage' and a whole slew of other attempts at fingerprinting / creating super-cookies.

syspec|3 years ago

The most widely used browser is run by the company that serves most of the ads.

So that's pretty unlikely

joking|3 years ago

Just be able to block the popups would be enough, block third parties, whitelist your auth provider that’s almost the only legitimate use of third party cookies and call it a day.