• Just mandate an opt-in default. If the “3–10% of people [that] want this”, wish to get out of their way and explicitly enable spyware, I believe this is a much more reasonable overall baseline (with respect to the other 90–97%). And considering most web-users rarely clear cookies, the preferences are effectively persistent already: which really appears to be the lobby’s primary interest. If people were conditioned by dark patterns to accept, while holding onto cookies, excessive data collection happens without user-awareness and potential for reevaluation.

    I’m no fan of browser signaling, because to me it seems like yet another unique identifier: to potentially, and ironically be (ab)used to improve browser-fingerprinting.

    • That’d be ideal, and would affect adtech’s ability to track without consent. So that’s a good goal.

      Requiring adtech to honor an automated signal would still be progress, hopefully reducing enshittification and making it easier to refuse tracking.

      It would be an extra bit or 2 that could be included in fingerprint. IMHO it’s worth it if there’s regulation that makes it easier to go after companies that ignore those signals