An open-source way to automatically block cookies (and the annoying cookie popups)

EU's data security legislation known as GDPR applies to all member countries and requires entities such as websites to protect personal data, devise ways to do it and show proof of that.

But those mandated to comply are finding ways to bypass some requirements including by making the user-facing process of cookie and tracker selection and/or rejection opaque and confusing - despite one of GDPR's requirements being that consent must come from an informed user and be straight-forward.

Nevertheless, websites have come up with a particularly annoying way to make sure they formally stay on the right side of GDPR - presenting obtrusive, overly complicated and omnipresent pop-us often only on the face of it ensuring compliance.

This is something that inspired Denmark's Aarhus University researchers to come up with an add-on called Consent-o-Matic that will automate, and thus speed up the process every time a big permissions request shows up obscuring the content users actually want to see.

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