{"id":2417,"date":"2016-05-23T10:29:04","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T17:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=2417"},"modified":"2020-08-26T15:15:36","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T22:15:36","slug":"cookie-law-politicians-good-intentions-create-security-nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/cookie-law-politicians-good-intentions-create-security-nightmare\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Years of Cookie Law: Politicians’ good intentions and incompetence create security, privacy nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five years with the \u201ccookie law\u201d, taking effect in 2011, shows how politicians\u2019 good intentions \u2013 when coupled with incompetence \u2013 can create a security and privacy nightmare. It was supposed to give users choice, privacy, and security. Its effect, over and above causing developer facedesks and headaches, has been the exact opposite.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2009, the European Parliament adopted an amended Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications<\/a>. The major new thing in the 2009 amendment of these rules was something called \u201cconsent for cookies\u201d \u2013 requiring all users to agree to cookies being stored onto their computer from all websites.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to remember that this legislative directive \u2013 the European equivalent of a federal law \u2013 was voted on by people who get their e-mail printed for them by secretaries, and therefore believe they understand what this Interwebs thing is about. No, seriously. That\u2019s actually what the European Parliament looks like still, and most certainly looked like two terms ago (early 2009).<\/p>\n

The overall idea was that users have to give consent for tracking cookies to be placed on their computers \u2013 overall, to give consent to being tracked. But the nature of websites by 2009 was already past using cookies for tracking only; cookies are being used for the entire interaction with the user, from authentication to preferences. Even something as simple as a WordPress blog places cookies on every visitor\u2019s browser (although most blog admins disable this for performance reasons).<\/p>\n

In any case, requiring opt-in for this in the website interface<\/em>, as opposed to in the browser options, has created a privacy and security nightmare that will take decades to undo. This is what happens when good intentions meets technical incompetence.<\/p>\n

The only net effect of the cookie law is that every user has been conditioned to click \u201cYes, I agree\u201d on any popup that appears when they go to a new website.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As these cookie consent dialogs take vastly different shapes, the average user won\u2019t be able to tell a \u201cAllow cookies? Yes\/no\u201d dialog from a \u201cInstall malware? Yes\/no\u201d one. And hence, political incompetence has created a privacy nightmare for the masses.<\/p>\n

Privacy remains your own responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five years with the \u201ccookie law\u201d, taking effect in 2011, shows how politicians\u2019 good intentions \u2013 when coupled with incompetence \u2013 can create a security and privacy nightmare. It was supposed to give users choice, privacy, and security. Its effect, over and above causing developer facedesks and headaches, has been the exact opposite. In 2009, … Continue reading “Five Years of Cookie Law: Politicians’ good intentions and incompetence create security, privacy nightmare”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1941],"tags":[213,188,214],"class_list":["post-2417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-surveillance","tag-cookies","tag-politicians","tag-tracking"],"yoast_head":"\nFive Years of Cookie Law: Politicians' good intentions and incompetence create security, privacy nightmare<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Five years with the "cookie law", taking effect in 2011, shows how politicians' good intentions - when coupled with incompetence - can create a security\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/cookie-law-politicians-good-intentions-create-security-nightmare\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five Years of Cookie Law: Politicians' good intentions and incompetence create security, privacy nightmare\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Five years with the "cookie law", taking effect in 2011, shows how politicians' good intentions - 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