[morpheuskafka]

How about, if you install software such as a web browser on your computer that has a certain functionality intentionally exposed via an API, and you then visit sites that make use of that API, you have given consent for them to use it. And if you don't like it, you can reconfigure said browser to block them.

[Retric]

Technology can have legitimate and illegitimate uses. Just ask the humble crowbar. Laws are how we codify such things and software is no different.

Consider, a computer virus is only doing what the OS/hardware allows it to do. By your reasoning that should be absolutely acceptable in all situations as TCP/IP is an API.

[sillysaurusx]

And if you don't like it, you can reconfigure said browser to block them.

Oh?

I'd love it if that were true. But increasingly, it's not.

Take the YouTube app on iOS. It has no extension functionality. And it's de facto the YouTube browser.

Is it a web browser? Depends how you look at it. YouTube is the web of videos.

Even if we're talking about the actual web, Chrome on iOS doesn't seem to be configurable with extensions. Certainly not easily reconfigurable. In fact, Apple blocks apps that become too configurable, like Expo's old "Scan a QR code and now see your app running immediately" functionality.

Sadly we no longer seem to live in the world where you're encouraged to reconfigure anything.

[dragosmocrii]

Well said! Now if browsers wouldn't have the option to manage certain things, that would be a different matter.

Food for thought: how about advertising companies needing to ask people for consent for showing them the ads; your local post asking for consent for delivering tou junk mail; etc... Lots of things are taken for granted and we just have to cope with it