Dutch government wants to ban unsolicited cookies
In a recently suggested bill, the Dutch government wants to force websites to asks a user permission before placing a cookie on their computer. This new bill is designed to improve the privacy of internet users and is the Dutch implementation of new EU directives.
This looks like another case of bill makers trying to get involved in affairs they have no knowledge of. The internet is not limited by borders. Each day internet users visit websites from all over the world. Enforcing a bill like this will be impossible.For website owners this will be nearly impossible to implement. Saving a user's choice will not be possible if the user chooses to block cookies. The only effective way to implement this would be by changing web browsers.For internet users this bill will add a lot of confusion as well. The average user will have no idea which websites to give permission and which not. Users might end up blocking cookies that are vital for website functionalities, such as shopping carts. Loading an average website will try to place cookies for around 4 domains on your computer. Most users will probably end up giving permission to everything just to get rid of the questions and to keep everything working normally.All in all this bill seems like a bad idea. Fortunately it is still in concept. Hopefully this part won't make it into the final version.