Browser preset: data protectionists want to abolish cookie banners

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Cookie banner: Data protectionists want to give users the opportunity to object to data being passed on in advance

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Lino Mirgeler / dpa

Cookie banners are a nuisance for both internet users and website operators. The European data protection organization Noyb ("None of your business") around the Austrian Max Schrems now wants to draw a line. Together with the Vienna University of Economics and Business, the activists have presented a browser extension in which users can consent or object to data disclosure in advance. Cookie banners would therefore be largely unnecessary - provided the website operator plays along.

"Advanced Data Protection Control" (ADPC) is a technical standard that browser developers and website operators can integrate directly into their offerings in the future. Users would be able to decide once which websites are allowed to use data for which purpose. This also applies to websites that you have never visited before.

Since the Federal Court of Justice increased the requirements for data processing last year, most German websites have been using the so-called cookie banners to obtain their users' consent to data processing.

But the banners popping up everywhere are criticized from all sides: website operators criticize the administrative effort, consumer advocates criticize the design tricks with which as many people as possible are to be tricked into agreeing to any data processing.

In May, Noyb started sending letters of complaint to a total of 10,000 companies in Europe and the USA if they did not adequately inform their users about the use of data or if they made it too difficult to refuse cookies.

Compromise proposal from Europe

The new proposal is a compromise offer. Many browser manufacturers integrated the “Do not track” signal into their programs years ago, with which users could object to data processing for advertising purposes. But most website owners simply ignored this request. In the meantime, Apple and Firefox in particular have integrated general cookie blocks into their browsers, which are intended to prevent the creation of advertising profiles.

ADPC should offer significantly more differentiated options for consent and rejection. For example, users can allow a news portal to compile reports individually, but at the same time prohibit tracking for advertising purposes. It is also conceivable to give general preference to certain content providers. "Many users are probably willing to share a little more data with quality media, but do not want to give their data to hundreds of external tracking companies," said Schrems. With ADPC, for example, a newspaper association could advertise a list with which certain data could be automatically processed by quality media.

Anyone who wants to get an idea of ​​the technology can do so on a Noyb campaign website. ADPC still needs an extension so that the browser can save the data defaults. So far, however, only Noyb has accepted this signal. In order for the system to actually spread, the data protectionists rely on European politics. Parliament and governments are currently negotiating the ePrivacy Regulation, in which such browser presets could be legally prescribed.

In Germany, the black-red government coalition had included such "Personal Information Management Services" (PIMS) in the new Telecommunications-Telemedia-Data Protection Act (TTDSG) at the end of May. With the regulation, the coalition wants to develop European services such as Verimi, NetID or ID4me to compete with the login services of large US Internet companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple.

The representative of the Federal Ministry of Economics for the digital economy, Thomas Jarzombek (CDU), welcomed the initiative: "The aim is the same as with the new TTDSG," he told the German press agency. Schrems' system could be perfectly suited to be a solution for "Personal Information Management Services" within the framework of the law. "As the Federal Ministry of Economics, we will talk to the organizers and see how we can get together here."

The problem, however, is in the detail.

While the industry wants to make data sharing as easy as possible, privacy advocates have the opposite goal.

Apple's newly introduced privacy controls in the app store show that if you give them a free choice, most users refuse to share their data.

Noyb has integrated a function in its browser extension with which websites are not even allowed to ask for permission to save data on their first visit.

This would significantly reduce advertising revenue for many portals.

tmk / dpa