Regulation of the internet, Advertisers and their tracking-spiked cookies.

First of all, welcome to my blog. I figured I needed somewhere to post my musings, rambles and thoughts now that I've deleted my twitter, after watching The Social Dilemma on Netflix. (Really good watch by the way.) I'll be posting stuff about the internet and technology, politics, music, electronic engineering, synthesisers, and possibly more.

I've just watched Tom Scott's latest video on "Why the web is such a mess", where he talks about advertisers, cookies, GDPR, etc. Watch below:

 

At 9:19 "Every bit of freedom that a designer has for creativity and good is also freedom for abuse. That's true not just on the web, but in every single aspect of the online world."

(And many, including myself, would argue the real world too, *cough cough* free-market neoliberalism *cough cough* 2008)

The internet, as with many things, must have a minimum amount of regulation to prevent abuse of power by corporate bodies or those in positions of power. I believe in a free and open internet, so I'm not looking for some way to actually enforce the way in which people use the internet.

Rather, offenders should be punishmed in the real world for their virtual crimes. This is to ensure that, if legislation is passed that is unethical, and infringes on the free speech of citizens, they are able to avoid authoratative powers and express themselves on the internet (I am very much opposed to the way China in particular regulates and monitors the internet in their country.) As Scott says in the video, the 4% annual revenue/20 mil. But this must be enforced for it to have any real effect, And it currently is not.

 

Furthermore, I believe there needs to be updated legislation, specifying that the "NO" box must be the first thing you see. and none of this "We Care About Your Privacy" crap, or just a vague "Do you want cookies?". The message should be enforced to always show as follows: 

 

"DO YOU WANT COOKIES? 

 

WE USE THEM TO SAVE YOUR PREFERENCES ON THIS WEBSITE, 

 

AND ALSO ARE GIVEN THE ABILITY TO TRACK YOU ACROSS THE WEB WITH THEM,

 

IN ORDER TO SERVE YOU PERSONALISED ADS.

 

ONLY ACCEPT IF YOU TRUST THIS WEBSITE 

 

AND UNDERSTAND THE DANGERS OF ALLOWING YOUR DATA TO BE COLLECTED

 

AND YOUR ACTIVITY TO BE TRACKED". 

 

And yes, it should be in all caps, in a very easily readable font, and large enough to see and read clearly. possibly segmented into small paragraphs, as above, for even easier reading. Maybe even in red to scare the reader into clicking NO, for their own benefit.

Also, there must be an option to use the website without accepting cookies, with the only difference in the non-cookie version being that preferences are not saved.

 

Those are just my thoughts, on an ideal situation of how the internet should be regulated in order to prevent advertisers from abusing their position of power.

 

Calsey