1045
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top new old
[-] [email protected] 53 points 6 days ago

Cookies are old news. What about browser fingerprinting which can track you across websites? https://www.amiunique.org/

There's basically no easy way to safeguard against it without making browsing nearly unusable.

[-] [email protected] 20 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days 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 ?

[-] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago
[-] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Happened to me, too. Fuck!

[-] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago

GDPR is regarding personal data, which includes cookies as well as any other fingerprinting. Even though browser fingerprinting does not persist any data on a device itself, explicit consent must be gathered before it's used for processing (i.e. tracking) purposes.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago

But why unusable, why does a browser have to leak language, window size, time, extensions? Can't those be spoofed?

[-] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago

A lot of those things are also required to render a webpage correctly.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago

But isn't most of that client-side processing? Can't I request a vanilla generic page and once it is in my browser to process it to shape it into the window size and extensions I want? Even if it is an adblocker: serve me the ad, I'll block it internally. But I suppose that for dynamic pages with js requests this would become hard to do.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago

Yeah it's Javascript that's the issue that can just take all this data in the client and send it wherever. And that's exactly what's happening.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago
[-] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

I'm not sure a technical solution is feasible, other than dns-blocking these trackers. I suppose lawmakers need to spring into action to make this shit illegal.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

You could probably set a cap on how many different fingerprinty attributes a script is allowed to grab before requesting permission from the user.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

That is indeed the solution.

A technical solution won't cut it. Here's a very convoluted example: the tag allows you to send the text "buy illegal drugs here" to kids!! Omg!!! What to do? Remove the tag? Obviously not. You ban the practice.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago

You will have your tor-connected 1024x768 anonymous window and you will like it!

[-] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago

tor-connected

You are unique!

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Tor Browser in normal mode is quite usable though, you just can't use extensions and you need to start a new session whenever you use other websites so they can't track you via cookies. Mullvad Browser is quite similar too.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

oh fuck i'm unique on every browser 😨

[-] [email protected] 31 points 6 days ago

This needs to be worldwide.

And... PURGE ALL USER INFORMATION!

I don't care for those 'but what about those people planning/planned crimes?' The one thing I learned from the current Trump administration is that the information is so fucking ripe for abuse AND they don't even catch enough actual crooks that letting a few legit bad people slip through isn't going to bother me.

[-] [email protected] 20 points 6 days ago

wow i didn't know belgium was based. I guess i was wrong when i thought they peaked with french fries

[-] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Also first in Europe to ban lootboxes as gambling, iirc.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago

Idk, their waffles and chocolates are pretty good too.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago
[-] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

Belgian craft beers are top notch.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

still pretty tough to beat the fries. I'd say this is a close second.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

It's a fairytale town, isn't it? How's a fairytale town not somebody's fucking thing?How can all those canals and bridges and cobbled streets and those churches, all that beautiful fucking fairytale stuff, how can that not be somebody's fucking thing, eh?

Wait, wait. Better quote.

What's Belgium famous for? Chocolates and child abuse, and they only invented the chocolates to get to the kids.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago

Even if idiots with enough money stay unleashed this is great news. One step at a time. Thanks for sharing!

[-] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago

And then the EU introduces the worst spying law in history.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2025
1045 points (99.6% liked)

Technology

71537 readers
4094 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS