[BiteCode_dev]

No need for a conspiracy. There was the DNT standard, companies made more money from not taking it into consideration.

That's it.

They chose the annoying banners, then they chose dark patterns on those banners.

It is a choice.

At best they were lazy and greedy. At worse they were malicious.

[monocularvision]

Don’t change the topic.

The general council (lawyers) at companies are making the decisions around cookies banners and the like, not the folks trying to make money. Regardless of how you might interpret the law and requirements around GDPR, the legal profession as a whole seems to think the crap we live with today is necessary. If it isn’t, it’s on the EU technocrats to clarify in communications, written rules, and on their own damn website what it is supposed to look like.

[BiteCode_dev]

Two things can be true.

And clearly, you think billion-dollar companies making dark patterns, ignoring web standards and choosing to track people left and right are less to blame the inconvenience of a banner (that warns you they do) than the people trying to protect your privacy and did it imperfectly.

I have made enought web sites and app that don't have a banner to know it's perfectly possible, even today.

I have implemented DNT support and know it was a great solution before it was taken away.

I have worked with enough clients to know why they chose the banner anyway.

Unlike you I actually read the law, and worked at implementing it. Including with and without a banner.

So I have to conclude you are not an honest actor in this debate, and you are clearly angry as well.

So I'll leave you at that.

[monocularvision]

You bet I am angry. I am tired of people defending a law by saying “that’s not what it was meant to do!” As if the intent matters one bit. What matters is the result of the law. And the result of this regulation is to make the web universally crappier than it was before. It did basically nothing to improve things in the real world.