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by ajdude·4y ago·view on hn ↗
My issue with the I don’t care about cookies add-on is that it auto accepts all of the marketing and tracking cookies, doesn’t it? I would love something that auto declines everything.
4 comments
If you add their list to uBlock, my understanding is that it only hides the notices, never accepts anything.
Most of the notices are implemented in such a way that the tracking is enabled by default and clicking "decline" in the notice sets a cookie saying "opt out" to all the trackers (whose effectiveness is probably equivalent to the "evil bit" in IPv4).

Blocking the notice (or ignoring it) is technically equivalent to opting in. Of course, if you're using a competent ad blocker it's likely that the trackers themselves were also blocked, making this a non-issue.

Isn’t that kind of implementation blatantly illegal, though?
It is, but:

* it's hard/impossible to prove - given how many factors go into ad targeting there isn't a conclusive way to prove whether an ad was targeted because of illicitly-collected data.

* as you see here even blatant GDPR breaches and acting in bad faith doesn't actually land you in trouble, so although it's "illegal", the law isn't enforced. Experian (or Equifax) got caught by the ICO knowingly misusing people's credit data for marketing purposes and all they got was a warning, so clearly the message is that "breaching the GDPR does pay".

uMatrix. You can configure it to allow everything else by default if cookies is all you care about.

Then, also enable uBlock origin's "annoyances" filter.

Ah, I didn't know that, but I run uBlock Origin anyway, which should block nearly all of that stuff.

It does appear (from their website) like the aforementioned Stardust can auto-decline everything, but I haven't tried it myself.

One problem you run into when declining cookies is that on many sites you won't be able to view embedded YouTube videos, tweets, etc. unless you go back in and allow social media cookies.

Cookies should be controlled by the client anyway. Just disable them globally, you'll only ever need them for a couple of sites
Keep in mind that data processing consent forms covers more than just cookies - providing consent and then deleting cookies still allows them to stalk you based on IP address, browser fingerprint, etc.