The EU e-Privacy directive requires website owners to inform users that the website they are browsing uses cookies, small files that are stored on the end users computer to make the browsing of web pages easier. Concerns about privacy meant that websites are now required to have some sort of notification, rather than relying on privacy policies buried somewhere on a website. The result is that websites now have annoying popups informing me of cookie policies.
The thing about cookies is, in my opinion at least, nobody worried about them until the great unwashed started using the web. Experienced users who were worried about privacy online would know how to browse in private modes, or to erase browsing history. It's only when the general public started being stirred into a frenzy about online privacy that our politicians acted to enforce something that the majority of people haven't got a clue about anyway. So now when I want to use a website, I've got to go through a nag screen to tell me what I knew already.
At the same time as webmasters are required to infom users of privacy policy, it turns out that our entire browsing history has being getting covertly watched as part of a US based project to prevent terrorism. And because all this information is shared, GCHQ in Britain may or may not be party to this information as well. And politicians on both sides of the pond, when questioned about this policy, the attitude is "meh." So what. It's for your own good. The politicians don't seem to have a problem with wholesale privacy breaches. If we could attach a generator to the body of Eric Blair, we could power the whole country from him spinning in his grave.
So, if you are concerned about privacy on this blog, don't use it. There may be cookies, and even if there are, who cares, because Big Brother is watching anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment