Browser pop-ups aren't quite the scourge that they were twenty years ago, but nowadays
there's a new irritating pop-up in town, the one that asks you to accept all cookies.
So what exactly are you agreeing to when you click that button?
It helps to first understand what a cookie actually does other than provide empty calories.
A cookie is a small piece of identifying information saved to your browser.
Some are what we call first-party cookies, which originate from the website you're
actually on. These perform various tasks to help the website function, such as saving your session once
you log in, taking note of your location so the site can tell what the weather is like
outside, or retaining settings such as keeping the website's dark mode enabled.
Other cookies are third-party cookies, which are the ones that cause considerably more
controversy, as these are usually the ones involved in ad tracking.
An advertiser that places an ad on a website will also put a cookie on your PC that follows
you around on the web and tracks your activity, with the idea being to use that data to serve
you relevant ads. So if you're a big hockey fan that likes to read about your favorite team, you might
start seeing ads telling you to buy tickets when you're catching up on the news later
that day. Unsurprisingly, ad tracking makes plenty of people uncomfortable, so there have been
laws passed in recent years that attempt to limit it, most notably the ePrivacy Directive
often referred to as the EU Cookie Law.
This cookie law makes it illegal for websites to place cookies on your device until you
click on that agree button. And on the surface, this sounds like a pretty good way to protect users' privacy, right?
Well, there are a couple of glaring issues with that law, including when you encounter
daily. One reason that the ePrivacy Directive is suboptimal is that its requirement for the
website to give you a user-friendly option for managing your cookies is pretty weak.
You see, user-friendly sounds like a good thing, but many websites interpret this clause
fairly liberally, often to the extent of presenting you with a dark pattern.
What we mean is that the accept all button is a very attention-grabbing and very easy
to click on button. While some websites are good guy Greg and make the reject all button immediately accessible
and equally prominent, many others force you to dig through a less obvious cookie settings
menu where a bunch of other options for disabling specific types of tracking cookies are present.
With the option to reject all unnecessary cookies relatively hard to find on a site
where you just needed to spend three seconds looking up a fact and this is going to take
at least twenty seconds. And just like a terms of service or privacy policy, the vast majority of people aren't
going to bother to read all that cookie fine print when the notice pops up.
Most of us are just going to hit accept all and move on, meaning that you're consenting
to ad tracking in all likelihood. That isn't even the only issue with how these cookie warnings are designed.
The ones that flat out prevent you from viewing the website until you hit agree, called cookie
walls, don't even comply with the EU cookie law.
And others are so poorly designed that the reject cookies button doesn't just reject
third party cookies, they can actually break the website.
They reject all cookies.
Unfortunately the EU hasn't exactly been super vigilant about enforcing the cookie
law. Useless, user unfriendly warnings have become the order of the day.
So are we just fated to deal with all of these cookie warnings forever?
Not necessarily. There are actually browser extensions available, at least on desktop browsers, that can auto-dismiss
these cookie pop-ups. Combine those with setting your browser to simply block all third party cookies on its
own and you have a pretty decent way to protect your privacy without having to navigate irritating
menus on every website. For the notices that still slip through though, it is best practice to reject as many third
party cookies as you can, unless you really like getting targeted ads for embarrassing
personal care products. Thanks for watching guys, like, dislike, check out some of our other videos, comment with
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