Superficially, the banners appeared due to how the law was made and how it's implemented. The noble intention is one thing and the pragmatic reality is another.

It's correct to blame the businesses for creating the banners but also unfair to treat the matter as if the businesses and the EU are on a level playing field. The EU makes laws - it has cheat codes to achieve what it wants.

It's like defensive driving. You may not be at fault if someone crashes into you but you may have had the power to prevent it.

> Superficially, the banners appeared due to how the law was made

So stop being superficial and read this 7-year old law. I wonder if you could point to me where it talks about cookie banners

And yet it's been 7 years and the banners still exist.

Because the industry doesn't want to give up on tracking and siphoning user data.

7 years of complaining about it hasn't changed that. Do you think another 7 years will be more effective?

Alternatively, the EU could change the laws. Or enforce the existing ones.

> 7 years of complaining about it hasn't changed that.

Funnily how "7 years of complaining" was, and continues to be, only about the EU. Not about the predatory businesses creating these banners (often in direct violation of GDPR).

> Or enforce the existing ones.

That's definitely the biggest criticism you can level at EU: they are too slow in enforcing this.

I think the tide is very slowly changing. First they started showing reject buttons https://noyb.eu/en/where-did-all-reject-buttons-come There's a report on the cookie banners in the works: https://noyb.eu/en/data-protection-authorities-support-noybs... etc.

>was, and continues to be, only about the EU. Not about the predatory businesses creating these banners

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17679596

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25457469

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30982470

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23090393

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29529062

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19381063

All of these links have comments against this sentiment.

I will admit that there's also a slowly grown understanding of where the cookie banners come from, so it's not "100% blame the EU".

This comment from one o the linked discussions sums it up well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29529190

I blame the businesses for destroying the social fabric of the internet, and I simultaneously blame the EU for implementing pointless regulations that do not solve the first problem while making life miserable for its subjects.

Businesses: destroy the social fabric of the internet

Regulation, literally: do not collect people's data without their consent if you don't require that data for services you provide. Applies in equal measure to websites, banks, grocery stores, shit processing plants and nuclear power stations.

...

4ad: I still blame the EU, and it's a pointless regulation.

Edit: This comment really says it much better: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35567507

You seem to think that the EU should be imune from criticism because it tries to do the right thing.

No, when politicians make things worse and absolutely don't solve any problem they promised they will solve then they should be held accountable, removed from positions of power, and replaced with competent people who write better regulation.

Edit to your edit: indeed, the EU is mostly about making people miserable while convincing them it's actually better for them.

> You seem to think that the EU should be immune from criticism

No it shouldn't. But it should be criticism and not blaming it for what is 100% the responsibility of the business.

> he EU is mostly about making people miserable while convincing them it's actually better for them.

See, this is not criticism. This is emotionally-charged whining and demagoguery

Most internet businesses need tracking to survive, so it's more like either you click past a cookie banner or you don't get to see the content at all.

> Most internet businesses need tracking to survive

Most criminal gangs need to steal/rob/etc to survive too.

> Most internet businesses need tracking to survive

Of course they don't.