From time to time, important news gets overshadowed by other headlines, even though it could have a profound impact on our (online) world. To most of us, few things are more bothersome than the dreaded cookie banners. On countless websites, you’re confronted with a pesky pop-up urging you to agree to something. You end up consenting without really knowing what it is. If you try to figure out what’s going on, you quickly get lost among the often hundreds of “partners” who want access to your personal data. Even if you do give your consent, it’s questionable whether you truly understand what you’re agreeing to.

    • gian @lemmy.grys.it
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      1 month ago

      Simple:

      1. make “no” the default answer when asking
      2. massive fine, in the order of 50% of total revenue, the first time you get caught to be paid before the eventual appeal, which if lost raise the fine by 50%. If not paid in 90 days, the CEO goes to jail until it is paid. From now on for 2 years the company must show that it follow the law.
      3. mandatory jail time for the CEO the second time you get caught with no option for parole or any other alternative sentence like a fine or whatever.

      Or any other solution where the eventual punishment cannot be considered just business cost.

      I know, almost impossible… :-(

      • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago
        1. Please. Need this. Thanks
        2. Would this work in any court of law?
        3. I’ve learned recently while the CEO has a lot of control, they are not ultimately in control. The executive board is. Everyone on the board should be jailed and barred from starting a business for 25 years or the length of the sentence, whichever is greater
        • gian @lemmy.grys.it
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          1 month ago
          1. Yes, a law can define whatever fine you want and timeframe to pay.
          2. Fine, not the CEO but the executive board members, it does not matter. The point is that who has the control and the benefit should also carry the risk. You get big buck from the company ? Fine, if your company do something illegal you pay the price.
      • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        Sounds like a plan from someone that has never been lobbied by the advertising industry. Many billions are at stake here. Not many governments can withstand the kind of lobby power this money can buy.

        Would be great to see more crackdown on this though. Random companies are collecting tons of data on people via default opt-in methods.

      • Attacker94@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I agree with the sentiment, but that harsh of an enforcement method is overkill, the penalty should be a fine, not jail time, because otherwise it could be abused to an insane extent, and 50% will immediately bankrupt pretty much any company immediately, most well structured businesses could probably sustain fines on the order of 40%, I do like your inclusion of percentage based penalties, but realistically with 2-5% fines, any ceo will be removed from their company after the first or second offense, and the company will bankrupt if they sustain more than a couple fines in a year.

        Edit: after doing the math on some actual companies, I believe 2-5% is too low, realistically 5% is the lowest that would actually change business dealings, and 25% will make a company just barely dip into the red. For this reason I think 5-15% should be the goal post.

    • Brumefey@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      Yes! You are unique among the 3874720 fingerprints in our entire dataset.

      If the website says that I’m unique in green font, it’s actually bad and should be red, isn’t it ?

  • underline960@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    This is a win for everyone in Europe, and possibly beyond. [Emphasis mine.] Companies may no longer secretly track your behavior based on “consent” given under pressure. Hopefully, this will not only put an end to these dubious practices, but also to those pesky cookie banners.

    But we’re not there yet. Regulators have ruled the system illegal, and the court’s ruling has now confirmed it. Still, the companies making billions from this model won’t stop on their own. That’s why European regulators must now truly step up: enforce the law and make sure these companies actually comply.

    Regulators try not to get compromised by lobbyists when billions of dollars are at stake.

    I sincerely wish you good luck.

  • Harvey656@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Random side note: how is Belgium to live in and what would it look like to live there right now? Asking for a friend.

    Edit: thanks for al the information. I’ll move onto learning more about the country and it’s people’s history.

    • Brumefey@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      We have better access to healthcare than France, generally good work-life balance, access to education is cheap (1000 eur for one year at a good university ). People are welcoming but also reserved. It’s raining a lot and we spend a lot of time complaining about it.

      • MaggiWuerze@feddit.org
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        1 month ago

        It’s raining a lot and we spend a lot of time complaining about it.

        Hey, that’s our brand!

        Sincerely, a dude from Hamburg

    • utopiah@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      how is Belgium to live in and what would it look like to live there right now?

      It’s literally between France, Germany and the Netherlands, I mean geographically yes but roughly culturally too. Arguably Brussels is a mix of all that and other cities again match where they are.

      So… it’s a Western European country with good quality of life despite having one of the very highest taxes rate. You don’t have to be a socialist to be here but if you want to become a rich entrepreneur it’s going to be challenging.

      Source : immigrated there from France ~10 years ago.

  • SparroHawc@lemmy.zip
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    1 month ago

    but but but how are the corporations supposed to make money off of our data if they can’t harvest it? Think of the poor corporations!!

  • a4ng3l@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Yeah I’ll need the detailed judgment of this one before considering it a massive win. Consent has always been something that needs to be done willingly and freely. The issue is forcing the whole industry to give a shit about the principle. Maybe IAB will have to shift its practices but I haven’t had any panicked calls yet so I assume this isn’t systemic.

  • KuroiKaze@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Someone from a developing nation told me that hating advertising is absolutely a luxury of only wealthy nations. Without ad supported formats LATAM, EMEA, and APAC would have far less access to entertainment and information. It made me reexamine how much of my thoughts on this are privileged.

    • Tad Lispy@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      It’s not about advertising. It’s about spying on our online lives. Not the same thing.

  • huppakee@feddit.nl
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    1 month ago

    I’m not a fan of being tracked so don’t get me wrong, but without the money earned with advertising the Internet will look very different and not only in a good way.

    • banshee@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I disagree. The online advertising industry needs to shrink, and we should probably break up the monopolies.

      Look at this chart:

      U.S. online advertising revenue from 2000 to 2024

      Growth of advertising correlates with enshittification.