Coalition calls on European Union: stop the annoying cookie banners
A large group of nineteen organizations, companies, and scientists has issued a joint appeal to the European Union. They want the familiar cookie banners on websites to disappear for good. According to the coalition, the current rules are not working well and are causing a great deal of annoyance for internet users.
Current legislation requires websites to ask for permission to place cookies. In practice, this means that visitors have to click a button to close a pop-up during almost every website visit. The coalition argues that this causes 'consent fatigue' among people. They often quickly click 'agree' without reading exactly what they are consenting to.
According to the critics, the current system is not only annoying but also ineffective. Because users often ignore the banners or click them away blindly, consumer privacy is not truly protected. The group is advocating for a new approach in which privacy settings are managed directly in the user's browser, rather than on each website individually.
The European Union must now determine whether it will adjust the rules for digital privacy. The coalition's proposal could make the internet a lot clearer and less frustrating for European citizens. Whether and when new legislation will actually be introduced is not yet known at this time.