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Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by mcv on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @09:43AM (#23090818)
At some point I just stopped reading sites that make it too hard to opt out. Though I would really like to have a browser that automatically opens links to such sites in incognito mode, accepts the popup for me, and makes sure everything is thoroughly deleted afterward.
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by StavrosK on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @09:52AM (#23090913)
I would like an extension that replaces the page with "It's not worth it" so I know not to even try to opt out and just leave.
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by SkySkimmer on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @10:12AM (#23091142)
If you block the domain in umatrix it basically does that. For instance techcrunch redirects me to some "guce.advertising.com" url and umatrix blocks it https://imgur.com/bxGAbiH
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by StavrosK on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @10:16AM (#23091175)
I'll look into doing that with uBlock/Privacy Badger, thanks!
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by mszcz on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @09:59AM (#23090990)
Oh, that's too much work. I've been using Cookie AutoDelete for Firefox and I've set it to clear all non-whitelisted cookies a couple of hours after last visit. This way I have to click once if I visit a couple of times a day.
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by peterhil on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @11:42AM (#23092272)
I use Vanilla Cookie for Chrome (it deletes all non-whitelisted cookies after some time or after closing the browser), and have been thinking about making a browser extension that just hides all fixed elements and transparent full size elements. The reason for me thinking this, is that nowadays I just accept almost everything, and trust the Valinna cookie to clean up afterwards. What do you think about this?
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by 0x38B on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @12:49PM (#23093277)
The first bookmark on my bookmark bar is "Kill floater", and it removes most floating elements on the page. It even works on many sites that hide the page behind a popup. Use it on my iPad all the time.

The bookmarklet:

  javascript:(function()%7B(function%20()%20%7Bvar%20i%2C%20elements%20%3D%20document.querySelectorAll('body%20*')%3Bfor%20(i%20%3D%200%3B%20i%20%3C%20elements.length%3B%20i%2B%2B)%20%7Bif%20(getComputedStyle(elements%5Bi%5D).position%20%3D%3D%3D%20'fixed')%20%7Belements%5Bi%5D.parentNode.removeChild(elements%5Bi%5D)%3B%7D%7D%7D)()%7D)()
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by peterhil on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @04:51PM (#23096145)
I cleaned up and improved this a little. Now it hides the fixed elements, unless their computed top is at 0px. Also makes the body to scroll automatically, as many sites set their body to fixed before the fixed popup is gone:

``` javascript:(function () { var i, elements = document.querySelectorAll('body *'); var style;

    document.body.style.overflow-y = 'auto'
    for (i = 0; i < elements.length; i++) {
        style = getComputedStyle(elements[i]);
        if (style.position === 'fixed' && style.top !== "0px") {
            elements[i].style.display = 'none';
        }
    }
})() ```
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by 0x38B on Thursday May 07, 2020 @05:45AM (#23101273)
This is great, thank you! More precise and thorough then what I had. I'll minify it and start using it on my iPad.
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by peterhil on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @04:53PM (#23096164)
HN breaks the formatting, and does not seem to support Markdown.
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by peterhil on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @02:45PM (#23094784)
Thanks! This will save me a lot of time.
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by ryanwaggoner on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @03:53PM (#23095536)
Do you mind prepending the bookmarklet code with two spaces as described here: https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc

It's breaking the layout of this entire comment thread for me so I have to scroll horizontally to read all of the comments. Thanks!

Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by dang on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @04:35PM (#23095974)
I've added two spaces there.
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by BaitBlock on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @10:04AM (#23091047)
The chrome and firefox extension I made: https://baitblock.app has a feature called tracking resistance. It deletes cookies on websites that you are not logged into automatically
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by detritus on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @10:28AM (#23091329)
As a Firefox user (on Windows) this is not a particularly encouraging prompt x

https://imgz.org/iqHHPwcE-1280.png

Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by BaitBlock on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @10:33AM (#23091389)
Pardon me, but what do you think is wrong with the prompt?
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by detritus on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @10:45AM (#23091538)
It looks terrible? The Firefox prompt is broken.

It doesn't realise I'm on firefox, so doesn't preferentially serve me a primary focus?

Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by OJFord on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @12:28PM (#23092950)
Reddit's even worse, if you visit the site from iOS it asks if you want to open the app 'or continue with Safari', whatever browser app you use.
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by denni9th on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @01:05PM (#23093497)
Similar thing on Android. Doesn't matter what browser you use, it asks you to "continue with Chrome".
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by OJFord on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @02:27PM (#23094574)
Really? I was specific about it because I had an Android phone until a few weeks ago, and didn't experience this.
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by toast0 on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @01:43PM (#23094012)
With Firefox for Android it shows me continue with Firefox.
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by ferzul on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @02:50PM (#23094836)
i get chrome on firefox/android
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by mcv on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @10:08AM (#23091092)
That sounds perfect. Login is the only legitimate use case for persistent cookies that I can think of.
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by kerkeslager on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @10:19AM (#23091211)
Logins are a common enough use case that browsers should simply support it directly, and drop support for cookies entirely.

There's no reason we can't have sites set an auth token, and send that in under the Authorization header. And then when you want to sign out of a website, you can have a button for that in the browser. The tooling already exists in the HTTP standard, it's just that it's only widely used for server-server communication.

Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by antsar on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @11:16AM (#23091889)
Wouldn't advertisers just use the auth token as a cookie then?
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by developer2 on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @12:18PM (#23092779)
Bingo. "Auth Token" simply becomes "Session ID", and the backend then tracks anything it wants as part of the session.

I don't see much of a solution other than making it a matter of policy, eg. Microsoft's "P3P" header. Otherwise authentication credentials need to be supplied with every request. Not a session id or token as a cookie, but the actual username and password being supplied with every request. Basically the old http basic auth, but with a more modern system to replace it.

I understand the core idea behind the EU's desire, but the fact is that cookies are absolutely required for login sessions, and it's impossible to allow users to opt out. The EU doesn't understand the tech behind the laws they are trying to enforce, and this is where it leads to. Absurdity.

Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by kerkeslager on Friday May 08, 2020 @10:33AM (#23115241)
Yes. However, there are some upsides: having an auth token which from the perspective of the browser is limited to auth, makes it more explicit when the browser is passing an auth token to the site: if the browser shows a "Log out" button, then you're providing that auth token--if you didn't log in to a website and suddenly you have the option to log out, that's very obviously weird. Of the perhaps 10 sites I visit on a regular basis, I only even have logins for 3 (email, Reddit, HN) so other sites would be slightly hampered in tracking me.
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by jimktrains2 on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @12:42PM (#23093178)
Only if you're logged in and only to the first party server, though.
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by PeterisP on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @01:23PM (#23093750)
That requires separate opt-in consent according to GDPR.

GDPR is absolutely not about cookies, it's not about having private information but about uses of it. You may have a legitimate need to collect some data - that auth token for login purposes, the customer's address for delivery, etc. That's fine, it allows you to collect and use that data for that purpose. But it does not mean that you're automatically allowed to use that login token or delivery address you have on your servers for other purposes such as selling or giving it to third party advertisers.

Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by ggreer on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @02:43PM (#23094755)
I can think of several other reasons:

- A/B testing.

- Limiting the number of articles a non-paying user can read per month.

- Persisting form data and shopping cart info. (Not all sites require an account to order stuff from them.)

- Improving recommendations based on what someone has liked or viewed on the site.

Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by laumars on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @10:58AM (#23091683)
Firefox containers can be used that way. There’s a plug-in (on phone and I forget the name) which opens each new tab as a new container. It’s bliss.
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by Vinnl on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @11:33AM (#23092142)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-con...

Though you'll need an additional extension to auto-accept.

Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by laumars on Thursday May 07, 2020 @01:07PM (#23105351)
That’s the one. Thank you
Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by MaxBarraclough on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @11:07AM (#23091801)
Personally I just use a Private Browsing window.

Plant all the cookies you like, they'll last about 3 minutes.

Re:No cookie consent walls, scrolling isn’t consent, says EU... by dangerlibrary on Wednesday May 06, 2020 @09:49AM (#23090880)
firefox focus does ... some of this?