I wonder if the EU will someday figure out a patch for this "Deteriorate everyone's user experience in a way that is technically compliant and blame the EU" behavioural exploit...

▲

poloniculmov 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I'm blaming Google for this, but most people just don't know why it happens. Probably they'll end up mandating that Google must show a notice with the reason and it will be implemented in the worst possible way.

All of these hissy fits Google and Apple are throwing are just making me wanting to use them less and less and I'm doing my best to explain how tech companies are doing malicious compliance to others.

	▲	pojzon an hour ago \| parent [-]
		How about EU starts legistlating towards a competitive market and creates its own web search Tech Giant ? So Google is forced to take competitor to account or will be pushed out of the market ? No? Better to complain and do nothing positive? Welcome to EU Parliment.

▲

KronisLV 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yeah, it's very overpowered and should be nerfed - they still haven't patched the cookie consent dialogs out.

To expand upon the silly comment a bit, not sure about this particular initiative, but to me it very much feels like something that should be configurable at browser level, instead of half-assed dark-pattern-filled JS dialogs: https://killthecookiebanner.eu/

▲

stymaar 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The European Commission is way too pro-business for that, even when the said businesses are parasitic actors who don't even pay taxes in the EU.

▲

spwa4 13 hours ago | parent [-]

Plus that just isn't how governments work. Governments work by imposing costs on others. They do not build.

	▲	stymaar 12 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		What does it has to do with the topic? And saying “governments do not build” is a crazy antihistorical take: many things, from the space industry to the telco one were built by governments, as well as the energy and transport sectors in many countries. For the past 50-ish years the West convinced itself that government should not build, and as a result we're suffering from a slow collapse of basic infrastructures. Meanwhile, in China and the Gulf, government kept building and the world's center of gravity steadily keeps moving eastwards.
	▲	TheHalc 10 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		"What have the Romans ever done for us?"

▲

nolok 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's fine + obligation to fix, and daily fine until fixed, and higher fine if you do it again.

I know that sounds like it comes from "it will never work", but that's how active directory, office file format, etc ... got opened, and in a case more similar to here that's how windows n and decoupling of media and internet component from windows internals happened.

The issue is, yes, it takes time.

Another issue, purely PR, is that yes the EU gets attacked repeatedly by people trying to match "respect the law of the market or leave" with "the EU tax US companies because they can't compete".

▲

BrenBarn 13 hours ago | parent [-]

> It's fine + obligation to fix, and daily fine until fixed, and higher fine if you do it again.

The important proviso is that the penalties need to (on some non-geological timescale) get high enough that the offender is no longer capable of operating. That could mean the fines reach $500 billion, or it could mean the company is barred from operating in the EU, or it could mean people get arrested and assets are seized. But unless the penalties become crippling, it won't matter. It needs to reach a point where the downsides of noncompliance are actually greater than the benefits.

	▲	esterna 11 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		NIS2 allows for the arrest of managers in case of cybersecurity incidents resulting from negligence. I think it's a step in the right direction, but we'll have to see how it plays out.
	▲	nolok 13 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		In the EU they like the "daily fine until fixed". It's how Microsoft bowed down. But unlike the story some on HN and in the US like to think, US tech companies don't ever get there except rare exception, they know the game.

▲

ukoki 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The solution is to mandate that websites are built for browsers/devices as much as they are for humans. That way you never see a cookie banner because you've set up your device to never accept marketing cookies; A Google Maps link clicks through to Google Maps because you told your browser Google Maps was your preferred online mapping tool.

▲

brador 14 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The corrective force should be market competition, but Google is a monopoly not a monopoly with so many moats it might as well be a monopoly.

They also buy up the competition before it gets a chance as is the way now.

	▲	esterna 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Why should be? I think it is abundantly clear by now that market competition alone will not fix this. Though that does not stop people from claiming "Yes that failed and people suffered/died, but that was not real capitalism! If only we had a real free market, it would have been better!"