Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Nursie 4883 days ago
The basement analogy is flawed. It's like a proxy holding your keys and giving them to anyone that asks, without your knowledge.

Education wasn't going to happen without notices like these.

2 comments

Yes, I wanted to keep it simple. The fact is that that proxy (the browser) is the problem, and is also where the solution lies, not in the subset people that Dutch law happens to apply to who make use of that proxy to obtain your keys.
Making them tell you they want the keys and give you a reason isn't all bad.

But yes, the proxy ought to do more to encourage people. One problem is that two of the major browsers (Firefox and Chrome) are funded by a company that makes all its money from tracking and advertising (google), and it's pretty unlikely they would turn off third-party cookies by default, which I think would be a good start.

I wouldn't be against a law that requires browsers to make third party cookies opt-in. Note also that the current law has no effect on Google's tracking whatsoever.
All analogies are flawed and quickly break down. They're only designed as a linguistic aid to help explain a concept by likening the unfamiliar to the familiar. They're not designed to describe the concept itself.