Post by @nikclayton@mastodon.social
Help us Kill the Cookie Banner
Every website asks the same question: Accept. Reject. Manage preferences. They're annoying, repetitive, and often designed to create artificial consent by pushing you into clicking "Accept All" just to get to the content.
It is time to end the banner madness and fix web tracking once and for all. Sign the petition to kill cookie banners! 🍪🧨
👉 Sign & share:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/kill-the-cookie-banner
#EUpol #DigitalRights #Privacy #CookieBanners #Volt #DigitalSovereignty #Cookies
@VoltEuropa Do you have something that contrasts this with the (failed) efforts under https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Not_Track ?
@nikclayton Great question! The key difference is legal enforcement: DNT was just a voluntary request that ad networks simply chose to ignore.
We're taking the original spirit of DNT and using modern technical signals (like GPC), but instead of politely asking sites to behave, we're pushing to cement those signals into law so websites are legally forced to obey them.
@VoltEuropa How does this prevent popups?
As a concrete example, right now, if I go to a page like https://www.theguardian.com/europe I get a popup that says I can either accept cookies, or subscribe.
Under this proposal, what prevents the site from showing a popup that says I either have to disable GPC or subscribe?
I have other questions, but they're probably better answered by reading the legislation. The petition page doesn't link to it, please can you do so here.
Under Article 88b, standard websites **must** automatically respect your browser's "no-tracking" signal (like GPC). They cannot show a popup asking you to disable GPC or change your settings.
As per the EC's current draft, news outlets received a specific exemption following heavy industry lobbying around digital ad revenue. They could still ask you to subscribe or accept tracking on-site. However, amendments are currently pending in the EU Parliament to strip out this loophole.
@nikclayton You can read the official draft proposal amending the GDPR (specifically proposed Articles 88a & 88b under the EU Digital Omnibus framework) on the EUR-Lex database:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52025PC0837