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Aloha Browser Update Promises End to Endless Cookie Prompts

alexe said:
Wow! Now that‘s a reason to switch browsers!

I can‘t believe it took until now for someone to make this. Also wonder why Apple hasn‘t already done this in Safari. Seems like an obvious idea for a privacy-focused company.
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There are safari extensions for that.

Like this one.

apps.apple.com

Consent-O-Matic App - App Store

Download Consent-O-Matic by Aarhus University on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips and more games like Consent-O-Matic.
apps.apple.com apps.apple.com
 
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I'm just curious how it can be feasible to release yet another browser? But I guess ”everyone” needs a browser so the market for browsers is quite big.

Anyway, Aloha seems nice. Might give it a go as I like to try new software. :)

Edit:

Browsing to their website with the desktop version of Aloha gave me this, so no magic by default at least:

1733320047020.png
 
cicalinarrot said:
Instead, you can make the sneakiest buttons, hide or put in a second page the "refuse all" button and so on. The internet experience has never been this bad.
Click to expand...
Oh gosh, how I never have agreed with someone more

The fact that the web has these cookie prompts across every website you go and they don't have the same options (some have accept all and reject non-functional cookies whereas some have accept all and then the other button opens up a thing to let you choose)

Hopefully a browser like this one where it will let you do it from the browser level instead of having to tell each website you go to individually will be a much-needed wake-up call to something that shouldn't have been this messy to begin with
 
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Abazigal said:
Well, what does it say when the solution appears to be worse than the problem?

And since this was brought up, does the EU consider their job done? They rolled out a ruling which for all intents and purposes, should have applied only to users in the EU, yet everyone around the entire world is subject to endless popups for cookie permissions, and at the end of the day, what has changed exactly?

Is there no one in the EU looking at the current state of popups today and going “You know, the law we passed years ago doesn’t seem to be working so well. Perhaps we should look at further refining it?”

It’s just another annoyance we are going to have to deal with till the end of time, apparently.
Click to expand...
The idea was to give users transparency over web tracking practices and to put them in control of who does so. The cookie popup is a permission slip asking whether the user is ok with the website in question tracking their browsing. Most users click the yes option because the websites purposefully make it difficult to select the no option. Websites are the issue, not the law.

But it runs deeper. Websites want to track your browsing because Google's search changes have made it impossible for many of them to operate commercially. It is genuinely difficult for small, independent publications to stay afloat without gaming the system. Its why what used to be straightforward copy like recipes have so much preamble to them: they have to game the keyword system in the hope Google will rank them higher.

The real issue then is the power one unaccountable corporation has over the livelihoods of so many people. Google, the search company broke its own product in favour of advertisers and not the end user. In an ideal world the EU and the USA would both go after Google's monopolisation of user data and simultaneously ban ad tracking so that readers are served up 'ballpark interest' ads based on their demographics in the same way print ads work.
 
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Ctrlos said:
Before this thread turns political, I'd just like to remind everyone that the spirit of the EU law was to stop cookies and browser tracking altogether. Scummy websites (nearly every website it seems) got around this by purposefully, of their own accord putting up a prompt asking users if they were ok being tracked.

The reason the cookie prompts exist is due to the website you are visiting and not some mandate by the EU. Aim your blame accordingly.
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Which points out why when a law is supposed to or intended to do X results in something completely different.

The EU should’ve just banned cookies out right and tracking it. They wanted to do that, but for whatever reason wouldn’t take that step.

So now we’re stuck with pop-ups in order to comply with the letter of the EU law.

It will be interesting to see how well the aloha browser works if it really actually stops them or website websites just ignore it’s request.
 
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Abazigal said:
There are safari extensions for that.

Like this one.

apps.apple.com

Consent-O-Matic App - App Store

Download Consent-O-Matic by Aarhus University on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips and more games like Consent-O-Matic.
apps.apple.com apps.apple.com
Click to expand...
Unfortunately it's also not perfect, but yeah, saves some precious time.
It makes me wonder - why not use machine learning to solve the problem. A few clicks by the user on cookie prompts and we'd at least have the whole process automated.
 
I use the Ghostery Extension for this and other anti-tracking issues, on top of the tools already provided by Safari. A pretty useful pairing. Ghostery seems to eliminate most annoying pop-ups.
 
Why not go on the offensive? I want a browser or extension that accepts cookies and then proceeds to DoS the site, sabotage the data, and bias cookie data to aid worthy causes or to create humorous network effects. Create a trend for chartreuse products, expand language preferences that include Klingon and Esperanto, and create a false demand signal for micro-USB cables or other junk. Inappropriately appearing NSFW content / adult products would be a powerful weapon to get a site to be hated very quickly.

Cookies evidently are bankable assets with negligible legal downside, but it seems like it would be possible to tank them into being severe financial liabilities.

Since it's on my device, I can do what I want with "your" cookie.

I am funemployed right now if anyone wants to play with this. Seems like an activist B corp with a investment strategy that shorts publicly traded organizations before coordinating attacks could actually be profitable as well as lead to spirit-of-the-law tune ups. At least in some sort of dystopian fiction.
 
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cicalinarrot said:
First modem was 56k :)
Well... except for someone making a phone call sometimes, it felt incredible back then!
I call this worse because it's really frustrating, impacts all use of new sites and could technically be fixed in a very easy way, it's broken because of stupid choices and not some tech limitations (like waiting 2 minutes for a bad jpeg of a lady used to be loaded when I was a teenager...)
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Things were much worse 20+ years ago. From the late 90s till about 2005. The amount of malware, viruses, pop up ads, slowdown of the machines with various animation or other files, fake urls, and on and on. Things are not great today, but back then they were far worse.

One thing that is far worse today though, the endless scrolling in many websites. I FRAKING HATE IT.
 
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Just downloaded it and ensured the GDPR settings were set to automatically deny. I opened up ‘The Sun’… so much for their promise.
IMG_0431.png


The scrolling sucks as well… reminds me of an Android app. Goodbye … Aloha …
 
Founder name sounds completely made up. Moroz is Russian word for Frost. In fact, Russian alternative to Santa Claus is Grandpa Frost. 😉
 
peneaux said:
It’s a shame that Mobile Safari is so constrained for ad blockers.

In a Mac, you can use AdGuard app that blocks everything, even YouTube ads, pop-up injectors behind links…

Or use uBlock Origins in Firefox or Ungoogled Chromium.
Click to expand...
You can use adGuard on Mobile Safari
 
willcapellaro said:
Why not go on the offensive? I want a browser or extension that accepts cookies and then proceeds to DoS the site, sabotage the data, and bias cookie data to aid worthy causes or to create humorous network effects. Create a trend for chartreuse products, expand language preferences that include Klingon and Esperanto, and create a false demand signal for micro-USB cables or other junk. Inappropriately appearing NSFW content / adult products would be a powerful weapon to get a site to be hated very quickly.

Cookies evidently are bankable assets with negligible legal downside, but it seems like it would be possible to tank them into being severe financial liabilities.
Click to expand...

While I also dislike popups and how cookies are used; there are valid reasons for using cookies, for example, session cookies. I use one to track a user across pages so they don't have to login to each page; and it is deleted when they close their browser. I don't use cookies for advertising purposes, data collection, helping Google make money, etc. and have no interest in what you do outside of my site; but do need to know who is logged in to properly present a page and ensure they get the proper information.

If a user doesn't want any cookies and blocks all of them, then they can't access my site; and I'll respect their decision but still need to make my site work.
 
Trusteft said:
You are kidding, right? Perhaps you were not an internet user in say 20+ years ago.
Click to expand...

I was, and until eternal September it was a pretty chill place. I can remember selling someone something, mailing it off and getting a check in the mail. One group of had get togethers and are still friends today.
 
Plutonius said:
Doesn't "Aloha" mean goodbye ?
Click to expand...

Ah the younger generations that have not watched "Miss Congeniality" with Sandra Bullock:

"In Hawaii, don't they use aloha for, like, hello and goodbye? So if you're on the phone with somebody and they won't stop talking, You say, 'Okay take care, aloha' don't they just start over again?"
 
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Abazigal said:
Well, what does it say when the solution appears to be worse than the problem?

And since this was brought up, does the EU consider their job done? They rolled out a ruling which for all intents and purposes, should have applied only to users in the EU, yet everyone around the entire world is subject to endless popups for cookie permissions, and at the end of the day, what has changed exactly?

Is there no one in the EU looking at the current state of popups today and going “You know, the law we passed years ago doesn’t seem to be working so well. Perhaps we should look at further refining it?”

It’s just another annoyance we are going to have to deal with till the end of time, apparently.
Click to expand...
Well yes I would say they are doing an admeriable job and fines websites that breaks the GDPR rules regarding providing a clear yes or no answer regarding the question of collecting cookies.

What would you do differently? Outside of banning cookies overall

The law in question have been amended and complemented a few times over the years.
Some of the actual cookie practices is from U.S. law state law such as California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Or Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA)


Here’s a website with most such laws listed end explored.
IMG_9817.jpeg
 
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