Cookie Block fixes GDPR violations in the browser
cookie block is a new browser extension developed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich that fixes GDPR violations on the customer site by deleting cookies.
Most websites display cookie consent banners when first visited in a browser; this also happens again when the cookies are cleared in the browser. Swiss ETH researchers analyzed the violations and found that 94.7% of the sites analyzed were in violation of the GDPR, including:
- 82.5% of all sites had at least one undeclared cookie.
- 69.7% of all sites assumed a positive consent response before the user gave it.
- 25.4% were unclassified.
- 21.3% ignored user options.
- 13.5% had incorrect maturities.
- 8.2% had the wrong purpose.
Only 5.3% of all sizes analyzed did not violate GDPR, with the majority having two or more violations.
Cookie Block was created to correct these GDPR violations in users’ browsers. Unlike extensions like Auto Cookie Optout, Never Consent or Vivaldi’s built-in handling, it doesn’t deal with cookie notifications that users see on sites automatically. The extension deals with cookies that sites write to browser storage to correct client-side validations. Since the vast majority of sites violate the GDPR, cookies are placed on the user’s system that shouldn’t be there or are otherwise infringing, for example because they have been misclassified or have an incorrect expiration date.
Cookie Block uses machine learning to deal with infringing cookies. The extension classifies cookies according to their purpose and eliminates those that the user rejects. According to the researchers, more than 90% of privacy-invading cookies are automatically deleted when the extension is used.
The cookie identification model approaches and sometimes exceeds the human experience. The researchers compared its performance to that of the Cookiepedia Repository, a large database of pre-categorized cookies. The performance of the extension is similar to that of manual classification in the four categories of cookies (necessary, functional, analytical and advertising).
The extension is available for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Opera. It will install on most Chromium-based browsers, including Brave and Vivaldi as well. The developers note that there will not be a version for Apple’s Safari web browser due to technical restrictions.
Cookie Block accepts necessary and functional cookies by default, and will delete functionality, analytics and advertising cookies automatically using its own algorithm running on the client. Users can change the default settings by opening the extension settings.
Strictly necessary cookies are permanently enabled, but all other cookies can be enabled or disabled in preferences. Additionally, users can enable the cookie history feature, which uses local history to improve classifier accuracy. There is also a slider to change the bias of necessary cookies. Setting it to a higher value may reduce site disruption, but may decrease overall accuracy and reduce privacy.
Individual sites can be added to an exception list; this is useful when a site does not work normally after installing Cookie Block. Finally, users can clear local cookie history and have all currently stored cookies categorized and those rejected by user policy removed from browser storage.
The extension does not prevent the setting of cookies, but will delete cookies immediately afterward based on the user’s policy settings. By default, all advertising, tracking and analytics cookies are removed based on the extension’s detection model and not on website or service rating.
closing words
Cookie Block should work with most browser extensions, including extensions that automatically react to cookie consent banners. The extension works in the background, analyzing and removing cookies based on its own classification of cookies. No data leaves the local browser according to the developers.
Cookie Block is a powerful browser extension that automatically deals with most cookies set due to GDRP violations.
Now you: How do you handle cookie consent banners and cookies?
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