Nerve saver: This browser extension eliminates cookie banners
The Bavarian consumer advice center has presented a browser extension that will make annoying cookie banners a thing of the past. The so-called nerve saver blocks the unloved pop-ups and thus lives up to its name.
Let’s be honest: Who doesn’t get annoyed by cookie banners that pop up when you visit a website? However, the more or less unconscious collection of user data will be a thing of the past in the future. Because the Consumer Center Bavaria has come up with a solution for this.
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Nerve Saver Plugin lives up to its name
The browser extension called Nervessaver has only one task: hide as many cookie banners as possible. Once the plugin is installed, it should prevent the annoying pop-ups from loading at all.
The function should help that users can surf the Internet undisturbed – in the truest sense of the word, spare their nerves.
This is how the nerve saver works
According to the Bavarian Consumer Advice Center, the plugin works as a firewall in the background.
The plugin knows what a consent banner is and what needs to be blocked from the signatures in “black” banner lists maintained by an international community. The nerve saver plugin uses a “block list” from the “EasyList Forum”.
In addition, the nerve saver also blocks advertising trackers by default. To do this, the extension uses the “EasyPrivacy” and “AdGuard Tracking Protection” block lists.
Overall, the entire technology is based on the open source project “uBlock Origin”. For the nerve saver, the developers have programmed a very easy-to-use user interface around “uBlock Origin”.
Cookies remain active despite nerve savers
However, the new extension only blocks the banners. The cookies themselves remain active. However, website operators may only set a few technically necessary cookies without consent. So if no banner for consent appears at all, users cannot give their consent.
By the way: Cookies for the shopping basket in online shops are usually not affected by the nerve-wracking. Users can therefore continue to shop online without any problems.
Nerves saver cannot completely prevent tracking
Unfortunately, the new extension does not completely prevent tracking. Because the protection is based on filter lists. An international community takes care of them.
Still, it’s hard to maintain all trackers as they are constantly evolving. With the new plugin, however, users are tracked down much less frequently.
This is how users can use the browser extension
To take advantage of the nerve-wracking experience, users can download the extension from the browser’s official add-ons page to install. After that, they don’t have to worry about anything anymore, according to the consumer center.
The green protective shield in the browser window (top right) shows that you are protected. Clicking on the shield opens a small settings window: It has a green background and indicates that “Consent banners will be blocked”. Everything is “in the green” so to speak!
From time to time it can happen that the plugin blocks the loading process of a website. The nerve saver for the corresponding page can be easily switched off with a large red button.
In the settings window there is also a small slide button with which users can also block the web tracker.
with cookie banners Users of websites and apps are asked for their consent to data processing. Users should be able to specifically accept or reject cookies.
Especially if they want to collect and store personal data, the website operators must provide information about this.
Since the unloved pop-ups appear frequently, users tend to click the consent button quickly and thoughtlessly. This usually results in more personal data being released than actually desired.
So far, the nerve saver is not available for mobile devices. Google and Apple have blocked the standard browsers of their operating systems Android and iOS for plugins.
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