Can crumbling cookies sweeten UK data-protection plans?

Why we liked this article

• The UK government wants to limit the need for repeated cookie consents – suggesting instead a one-stop data-privacy setting applied at the browser level.
• Raises wider privacy questions around opting out of tracking, rather than opting in, which may place the onus on individuals preventing, rather than permitting, their online lives being monitored.
• The UK is drafting its new Data Reform Bill, aimed at moving away from what the government calls the “red tape” of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation – most of which has been adopted into British law. Currently, GDPR puts enormous weight on protecting the privacy and data of individuals, with steep penalties for non-compliance, but cookie consent is not covered within it.