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Comment by anigbrowl | Hacker News Reader

Imagine all the time wasted on those modal dialogs and add up the total cost in human lives.

GMAFB, nobody is dying because they're being asked to consent or refuse cookie tracking. If you are worried about that then why haven't I see you complaining about the modal dialogs and umpteen other other impositions inflicted upon users by marketing departments?

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There are nearly 4 billion internet users. 1 billion seconds is 31.7 years. Clicking on those useless dialogs easily adds up to a whole human lifetime every day.

I think jules means to consider how many millions of dollars and euros and hours and hours were spent developing the modals for thousands of different websites and how that money might have been better spent.

Perhaps, but you could say the same about 99% of marketing appeals, which are far more profuse, and many of which are actively deceptive.

My main objection to it is that it doesn't at all solve the problem. Everyone clicks "accept", people still don't know what cookies (etc.) are, it was yet another silly regulation that harms small players and entrenches megacorps, and overall makes the internet less fun and more corporate junk.

Real regulations about this stuff require real technical expertise, and it's going to be at least a generation before that expertise exists in the political class. The alternative is to let the tech lobby write the regulations, but booooooooo.

Sorry, that argument begs the question. I am well aware of what cookies are and think about the content of what I'm agreeing to, and often decline invitations from sites I don't trust. You're assuming that's what is convenient for one party in the transaction must be optimal for all parties, which is irrational.

In fairness, you're a Hacker News reader. I don't think we should be making regulations and defending them with "sure only experts really know what these things are, but that's fine". Regulations shouldn't rely on people being experts, they should keep people secure even when they're not experts. Regulations more in this vein are things like building regulations, electrical standards, hospital regulations, etc. I know basically nothing about this stuff, and if I get shocked because of bad wiring no electrician anywhere will say, "well you should've been an expert electrician, your fault buddy". But that's exactly what happens in the non-security dev community right now. "Well you should've been an expert in public key cryptography, your fault buddy". It's just not realistic.

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