OT: Why can't non-EU websites ignore EU cookie laws/GDPR?

I was working with a group in Oxford and I asked them if our tomographic atom probe machine would have to be tested for CE compliance. They all laughed out loud.

"You don't understand. CE means Can't Enforce."

They buy CE stickers in bulk.

Is there a Firefox addon that automatically answers the stupid cookie consent question?

Oxford is a wonderful, magical place.

Problem is it is different every time

USA is small country vs./ EU

so EU can block the whole USA on the internet, like China

Probably block access to it. Besides its all smoke and mirrors. It does not seem to me that cookies are now the only way to track you. Many email newsletters seem to have embedded links that click through third party data gathering sites on the way to the actual page, and its happening on all sites. If you moan they say that its legitimate market research, but then they would of course. So if the data is gathered before you get to the cookie warning, its OK presumably. Brian

Use AI!

OK, europeans don't need Xilinx or TI parts or google or any of that nasty American stuff. They don't need the internet at all. Let them have their wars to keep themselves amused.

They certainly don't need S.E.D.

Can't you set up a browser that blocks cookies?

Actually, Firefox has several. Here's one:

cookies live over browser's functionality

Old web browsers may work fine, providing html parsing by scripts

Trouble is its a very blunt instrument and destroys ability to log into sites and to do online shopping

It would have been much better if the EU had mandated a single click to reject all cookie requests (and to reject alternative methods of tracking) or better still to have mandated honouring the browser's Do Not Track requests.

... and then how does half thw web actually work? Cookies are necessary (or at least make things *much* more usable) on all sorts of web sites.

The only ones that are useful to the user are ones that remember login details so you only have to enter the password, or nothing at all on a non-critical site such as Flickr or YouTube.

All (well, as far as I know, all) shopping sites use cookies to store your shopping basket. It's not just long term cookies that are useful.

If you want science, go to Cambridge. When my wife was an academic there she had to field questions from Brian Josephson (who wasn't exactly what you'd hope for in a science Nobel prize winner). Max Perutz was better value (and got his for Chemistry), but we didn't move in that social circle.

Oxford is artier. They may go in for magic. J K Rowling did want to go to Oxford and it's images do show up in the Harry Potter books. Oxford certainly had better restaurants.

Sites already let you select to only accept strictly necessary cookies, but that often means clicking down a list of dozens of others to turn them off individually. If the one click feature or the honour Do Not Track feature were mandated, multiple clicks would not be necessary.

And rejecting cookies (using the website's rejection method, not your browser's) normally leaves the necessary cookies enabled and refuses the rest. That is the bit I hate, as rejection often means un-clicking dozens of items in a list.

The stupid EU probably think cookies is it.

I only do marketing surveys for one company, because they give me Argos vouchers. When one called and didn't want to give me anything, I got very angry. Especially as the survey was on behalf of the tax office. I told them I wouldn't help the tax office for a million pounds.

I don't want to block cookies, I want to block the stupid notice which is more annoying than the cookies it attempts to warn you about. Everyone just says ok to continue.

I do have a browser extension called "I don't care about cookies" (I thought it was "cookie muncher", maybe that one wasn't any good). It autoanswers the stupid EU messages, trouble is I still see them flash up.