I know they’ve been around since the GDPR came into effect, but I’ve suddenly noticed a sharp increase in the cookie prompts on web pages which have a second “legitimate interest” page. Some of these have an “object all” button, but plenty require you to manually opt-out of sometimes hundreds of ad-trackers.
The cynic in me assumes this is a legal loophole, whereby they can claim legitimate interest in your data in order to do exactly what they were going to do anyway (which is not what the legitimate interest feature of the GDPR is for) without being required to give you a “reject all” button.
Am I being overly paranoid or is this exactly what’s happening?
Does blocking all third-party cookies (something your browser should be able to do by default) negate all this need to reject anyway?
If not then what’s the solution?
If you do have an answer then please state if it applies to EU/UK or other, non-GDPR-respecting countries!
The interest might be theirs but the “legitimate” part absolutely has to incorporate a written justification somewhere within the the depths of the mandated records of processing activities that explains why the business/institution couldn’t possibly do what they’re doing without processing that particular piece of user data. “I want that” is not legitimate interest in the sense of Article 6.
Agree. But practically they may claim using such data to improve their systems. This is a valid LI justification. But still it provides no benefits to users to whom those data are collected from, while at the same time increases their risks (such as mishandling of their data - which is common since it’s very difficult to handle data 100% correctly).
For me there is no legitimate interest from sites. When they ask to track you, the answer is no for me. Required cookies that will break the site when you block them are bad enough, but can be useful for fora or sites where you order stuff.
Yes, it is a choice. I choose to delete cookies because it is the technique most websites use. Tracking plugins, canvas, webrtc, etc are harder to defend against and if they are all deployed by a tracking site, it is almost impossible to not be unique.
Well, I still disable them. The theory behind them is, that they actually serve a purpose for the function of the site, whereas cookies in general can be used for a variety of actions. Like tracking. Realistically, the site will work just fine without.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !privacyguides@lemmy.one
In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.
This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.
You can subscribe to this community from any Kbin or Lemmy instance:
Check out our website at privacyguides.org before asking your questions here. We’ve tried answering the common questions and recommendations there!
Want to get involved? The website is open-source on GitHub, and your help would be appreciated!
This community is the “official” Privacy Guides community on Lemmy, which can be verified here. Other “Privacy Guides” communities on other Lemmy servers are not moderated by this team or associated with the website.
Moderation Rules:
We prefer posting about open-source software whenever possible.
No soliciting engagement: Don’t ask for upvotes, follows, etc.
Surveys, Fundraising, and Petitions must be pre-approved by the mod team.
Be civil, no violence, hate speech. Assume people here are posting in good faith.
Don’t repost topics which have already been covered here.
News posts must be related to privacy and security, and your post title must match the article headline exactly. Do not editorialize titles, you can post your opinions in the post body or a comment.
Memes/images/video posts that could be summarized as text explanations should not be posted. Infographics and conference talks from reputable sources are acceptable.
No help vampires: This is not a tech support subreddit, don’t abuse our community’s willingness to help. Questions related to privacy, security or privacy/security related software and their configurations are acceptable.
No misinformation: Extraordinary claims must be matched with evidence.
Do not post about VPNs or cryptocurrencies which are not listed on privacyguides.org. See Rule 2 for info on adding new recommendations to the website.
General guides or software lists are not permitted. Original sources and research about specific topics are allowed as long as they are high quality and factual. We are not providing a platform for poorly-vetted, out-of-date or conflicting recommendations.
Legitimate interest is their interest, not yours.
The interest might be theirs but the “legitimate” part absolutely has to incorporate a written justification somewhere within the the depths of the mandated records of processing activities that explains why the business/institution couldn’t possibly do what they’re doing without processing that particular piece of user data. “I want that” is not legitimate interest in the sense of Article 6.
Agree. But practically they may claim using such data to improve their systems. This is a valid LI justification. But still it provides no benefits to users to whom those data are collected from, while at the same time increases their risks (such as mishandling of their data - which is common since it’s very difficult to handle data 100% correctly).
For me there is no legitimate interest from sites. When they ask to track you, the answer is no for me. Required cookies that will break the site when you block them are bad enough, but can be useful for fora or sites where you order stuff.
I asked about it too, read the answers here:
https://phtn.app/post/lemmy.world/5698358
Cookies are less harmful when comparing to other tracking like canvas fingerprint or thirdparty scripts tracking.
Personally I don’t trust cookie policies at all, I use plugins that will bypass cookie banners and then auto delete cookies 20 seconds later.
Using a plugin make you more trackable
Yes, it is a choice. I choose to delete cookies because it is the technique most websites use. Tracking plugins, canvas, webrtc, etc are harder to defend against and if they are all deployed by a tracking site, it is almost impossible to not be unique.
Do you know a good plugin for this on Firefox?
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-autodelete/?utm_source=addons.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=search
Well, I still disable them. The theory behind them is, that they actually serve a purpose for the function of the site, whereas cookies in general can be used for a variety of actions. Like tracking. Realistically, the site will work just fine without.