This site probably uses cookies and might store some information about you using them. I don’t really know and don’t really care, but if you are accessing it from Europe then it’s (and therefore I’m) likely not complying with EU law, specifically the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and the ePrivacy Directive and its 99 legal directives.
So does this mean I am the EU’s most wanted criminal? I’m guessing not, but technically it does mean I could be arrested if I visited an EU country which implements this, also I could get a hefty fine.
Why have the EU decided to make me a criminal then? Well because one or two douche-bag on-line companies gather every scrap of data they can from your visit and store it for potentially nefarious purposes.
But those self-same douche-bag companies also probably comply with the GDRP and if you did hit that “ACCEPT COOKIES” button it would take you to their 500 page terms and conditions document, which you would not read and would click and accept anyway, and this would make everything OK. The bottom line is that if I was evilcorp.com before the GDPR, I am not going to suddenly become angelcorp.com after it, I am just likely to obfuscate the fact I am doing evil behind these T&C’s, or some shell corporation in some tax haven and totally ignore the GDPR.
I understand the internet, I understand programs, I understand web protocols, but what I don’t understand, nor will I ever because life is too short are the inner WordPress program, its plugins, and the stack that my web hosting service runs to give you this fine web-site. I am not really a web person as they depend upon heaps and heaps of layers that are generally simple to implement and understand but nobody has the time to and so I trust that they don’t do anything that would cause worry. I trust but I don’t know, and if I asked my hosting provider, they would probably tell me the same, the internet is build on layers of trust that a few smart people and security experts (many unpaid) keep in check for us, and I thank them for it.
So does the GDPR do any good? It might, I really have no idea, and you have come to the wrong place if you expected me to answer this sensibly, I have not read the 99 regulations and I have never once not clicked on ACCEPT COOKIES.
Again there are probably some people in the various European Data Protection Agencies that do this (though I doubt it) and if they do I am sure they feel they are doing a crucial role in keeping the world safe. Personally (and probably controversially) I think the only thing they are keeping the world safe from is unemployed bureaucrats and lawyers. As far as I am concerned the Internet is the ultimate case of the wild-west and Buyer Beware, and if you are relying on regulations to protect you on it you are just being naive!
