Over the course of the last few months, you’ve likely come across the initials GDPR. They stand for the General Data Protection Regulation, which, as hinted by the name, is a set of Europe’s new sweeping data protection and privacy law that went into effect almost half a year ago.
This ZDNet explainer is a good reference point.
As a result of the coming into effect of GDPR, there has been a marked increase in the number of pop-ups and emails from the various websites, apps and services we use when connected to the internet. Everyone has been rushing to cover their backs and make sure they are GDPR-compliant.
While, at least in my personal assessment, the spirit and letter of regulations like GDPR is important in a world where data is the biggest and most valuable currency anyone can have in their possession, the consequences, like the many pop-ups we have to put up with when visiting sites, are not so pleasant. We can’t have our cake and eat it, can we?
Turns out, we can. At least according to Opera.
Opera’s popular Android browser has been updated to include a very 2018-esque feature: a cookie dialogue blocker.
If this sounds familiar then it is because we (yes, I also use one) are very familiar with ad blockers. You know, since everyone who does the things I do thinks you should see 50,679 ads then respond to a few million calls for a subscription to their 900 half-baked newsletters before you get to read the content that took you to their website in the first place.
Ironically (in addition to this site also running ads), Opera Software’s other products, like Opera News, are just as notorious for the same things as the aforementioned sites.
For many, Opera has been a popular option to turn to thanks to its built-in ad-blocker and now there’s even another reason, much as this may not be something we were even looking forward to.
The cookie dialogue blocker will, well, block all those “this website uses cookies blah blah blah” prompts you get when you visit sites as well as the privacy policy dialogues.
Users can turn on the feature in the settings of version 48 of Opera under the ad blocking menu.
The update also includes a couple of other features that have now made it to the mobile browser.
