Max Schrems is working on a framework that can automatically pass cookie rejection
Privacy activist Max Schrems is working on a browser plug-in that should allow users to automatically refuse cookies in browsers. The plugin is part of a website builder framework that can communicate user preferences.
The framework and plugin is called Advanced Data Protection Control or ADPC. These ‘can make cookie banners superfluous’, writes the Noyb foundation, which was founded by Max Schrems. The system should allow users to automatically communicate their preferences for accepting or refusing cookies to a website. This is done via HTTP headers or via JavaScript. The plug-in then ensures that they can still change their preferences via a cookie banner, for example to withdraw permission or to pass it on. According to Noyb, the cookie banner complies with the rules of the AVG, so with a clear yes or no option for permission.
The advantage of the framework is that users can specify their preferences per domain. According to Noyb, a distinction is also made between general signals, for example to refuse or accept all forms of cookies, or specific signals so that users can indicate which types of cookies they do and do not want to receive. Combinations of the two are also possible. For example, the plugin also allows users to automatically grant permissions to news websites they frequently visit.
There is a big ‘but’ to the proposal: website builders should participate in it themselves. The question is whether they are also interested in that. However, browser makers and operating system developers could also work with ADPC, but for now the proposal is still in the proof-of-concept phase. Noyb already has a prototype of the plug-in ready for Firefox, and is working on a Chromium plug-in.
ADPC is a way for websites to meet the requirements for cookie banners and walls. Schrems has long wanted action against websites that do not comply with the GDPR and the e-privacy regulation. At the end of May, he sent warnings to hundreds of websites that would not comply with the privacy law because of their cookie walls.