Those annoying internet "accept cookies" messages could be about to disappear

Technology Technology: In The News
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Some great news potentially in that those ruddy annoying “will you accept cookies” messages that pop up almost every time you open a website or internet page could largely become a thing of the past.
This would be part of a “red tape post-Brexit data revolution” which Oliver Dowden (Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) says that he hopes will " turbocharge the UK’s digital economy and allow data to be used more flexibly."

Those unable to read The Telegraph can read a similar report from Sky here:

Here is the government’s plan for anybody that might be interested:

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Is this a thread about annoying messages, or a crowing about Brexit one? :017:

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You had to do one to get the other!

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But which is the subject of the thread?

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I probably won’t notice the difference because I installed the ‘I don’t care about cookies’ browser extension. Installed because I don’t care about cookies. The extension automatically supresses the messages and accepts the cookies.

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I always accept cookies, never had one yet though…I like chocolate chip…:crazy_face:

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I usually reject all cookies. I assume this now means our data is up for grabs and internet spying is key to a booming economy? Or have i missed something?

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Does this mean no more cookies?

or

Does it mean ‘they’ will still add them but just not tell us about it?

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It’s a very irritating European thing, no one else seems to care - my browser deletes all cookies on exit anyway.

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I thought it was this, the old days before we had a choice. I haven’t read the small print though. But I am reading between the lines!

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Some cookies are helpful.

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Umm! absolutely essential actually, you wouldn’t be able to log into or use this forum without them. The tracking cookies are easily disabled by addins like Ghostery and AdBlock Plus - as I say, I never understood this European obsession with asking.

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Not all cookies are equal.

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If you’ve missed anything it is maybe that there are ways you can protect yourself (by clearing cookies & by using a VPN for example), and BTW every company you have any dealings with holds information about you which is often shared, so worrying about cookies and ignoring the huge variety of data held elsewhere is a bit pointless IMHO.

Here’s what one leading antivirus company says about cookies:

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Whether accepting cookies or not, we’re all tracked around the Internet anyway. There’s a browser extension called ‘Lightbeam’. It is made for Firefox primarily but I think there is a version that works with Chrome and Edge. Lightbeam shows just how many third-party sites hook into the site you’re actually visiting. It comes as quite a surprise.

I once installed all the popular anti-tracking blockers as an experiment but still a few tracking sites weren’t blocked. It probably only takes one not blocked to communicate with all the others. Oh well, we are but an IP address and a statistic to trackers and probably not worth any worry. If we take part, it happens.

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I always deny cookies unless they are “essential”.