GDPR question

[Ambrosia7177]

Hello. I'm here in the U.S.

Often when I go to larger or international websites, I am greeted with a pop-up asking me about my provacy preferences.

This may sound dumb, but I find these confusing.

For instance, if I want more privacy, how should I fill out this form?

Likewise, how about this one...

This one is especially confusing to me! Am I turning on privacy, or am I turning on spying?


GDPR seems to be well intended, but trying to figure out a lot of these pop-ups seems to put me at greater risk than just blocking cookings and so on.

Please enlighten me!

 

[McScooby]

Say no to everything and you'll be fine, sites you're used to probably collect this data anyway.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Say no to everything and you'll be fine, sites you're used to probably collect this data anyway.

In the first screenshot, I assume choosing "Off" turns off tracking, right?

But what are you supposed to do on the second screenshot? It doesn't specify what "off" and "on" means...

 

[Nütztjanix]

By moving the slider in the „on“ position, you grant the website the permission to do what is listed left to the slider. For example, selecting „on“ for the last item allows the site to use cookies for measurement.

I agree that these forms are often confusing - that’s intentional. GDPR requires websites to give you the choice, but obviously most of them just want to continue as before. So they try to give the impression you have to allow everything for the site to work as expected. This practice is under scrutiny by the EU.
There are quality sites that do it better, though.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

By moving the slider in the „on“ position, you grant the website the permission to do what is listed left to the slider. For example, selecting „on“ for the last item allows the site to use cookies for measurement.

So in the 2nd screenshot, if you want provacy, you just leave everything turned off like they have the default configuration, correct?

And in the 1st screenshot it looks like you need to consciously set everything to "Off" tp keep your privacy, correct?

I agree that these forms are often confusing - that’s intentional.

What a bunch of jerks!

It doesn't help that the labels are confusing too. Like "Ad Selection". What does "on" and "off" really mean? On could mean that you choose to not select any ads or off could mean you don't want ads. So which is it?

GDPR requires websites to give you the choice, but obviously most of them just want to continue as before. So they try to give the impression you have to allow everything for the site to work as expected. This practice is under scrutiny by the EU.

They need to fix things, because I have probably answerr some of the forms incorrectly in the past, and it's not fair to trick people.

There are quality sites that do it better, though.

Isn't that an oxymoron? "Quality" sites on the Internet?!


I don't speak German, so not sure what this is below...

View attachment 905413 View attachment 905414

 

[Nütztjanix]

So in the 2nd screenshot, if you want provacy, you just leave everything turned off like they have the default configuration, correct?

And in the 1st screenshot it looks like you need to consciously set everything to "Off" tp keep your privacy, correct?

Correct.

What a bunch of jerks!

It doesn't help that the labels are confusing too. Like "Ad Selection". What does "on" and "off" really mean? On could mean that you choose to not select any ads or off could mean you don't want ads. So which is it?


They need to fix things, because I have probably answerr some of the forms incorrectly in the past, and it's not fair to trick people.

Sadly, it’s common practice.

Isn't that an oxymoron? "Quality" sites on the Internet?!


I don't speak German, so not sure what this is below...

The first screenshot is the popover you initially get presented with. Default choice (green button) is to accept all cookies. You can also choose to only accept necessary cookies, which are required for the site to operate as intended („Nur essentielle Cookies akzeptieren“ - grey button). This is the best/safest choice.

The second screenshot is what you get if you click on „Individuelle Cookie-Einstellungen“ (individual cookie settings). There you can manually configure what cookies to accept in addition to the essential ones - „Statistik“ (statistics, presumably tracking) and „Externe Medien“ (external media such as YouTube, Twitter and the like - with all connected privacy concerns). Note that these are off by default. That I would count as good practice. Only way to make this even better would be to make „only essential cookies“ the default in the initial popover.