It's time for the European Union to kill those pesky cookie banners seeking users' consent on websites, nearly 20 groups and academics demanded on Thursday.

Cookies are the trackers that monitor users' online behaviour, enabling companies to target them with personalised advertising.

A coalition of 19 civil society groups, academics and businesses urged the EU to put "an end to annoying and misleading cookie banners" in a letter to the European Commission, EU capitals and members of the European parliament.

The commission last year proposed a reform of its data-protection rules, which initially included plans to get rid of the annoying banners.

But member states oppose an article the coalition said would have allowed users to set "privacy preferences once, and very rarely see another banner".

The reform will only become law after the EU parliament and 27 member states negotiate on a final version.

"There is no valid justification to drop the commission's proposal... and to uphold the current cookie banner disaster," Ursula Pachl of the European Centre for Digital Rights, known as Noyb, said in a statement. (AFP)



Edited by Tony Sabine