The European Commission has this week announced that there will be relaxations in digital regulations surrounding privacy, with the most notable change being an update to the GDPR cookie legislation. This adjustment, aimed at reducing the well-known and often annoying cookie pop-ups, should make internet use a lot friendlier for Europeans.
It is ironic that the EU is now coming up with plans to reduce the abundance of cookie pop-ups, while the same EU itself caused these pop-ups by introducing the ePrivacy Directive and GDPR, which mandated such notifications.
Cookie preferences more easily controlled via browser
The new proposal makes it possible to set your cookie preferences with one simple click, directly via the central privacy settings of your browser or operating system. As a result, in the future, websites will no longer have to ask permission for placing cookies per visit. Instead, they automatically consult the preferences set by the user at the device or browser level.
This means that browser makers are required to offer a GDPR option, which allows users to clearly and centrally manage their privacy settings. This choice is then automatically communicated to the websites you visit, so that you are not confronted with endless pop-ups again and again.
This change nicely illustrates how policy and practice do not always fit seamlessly together; What was intended to protect privacy led in practice to a huge flood of pop-ups that actually discouraged users. With this new adjustment, the EU implicitly acknowledges that the original cookie policy caused irritation in practice and is now evolving towards a more user-friendly solution.
Problems with cookies in Safari 26
Many Safari users have recently experienced that their cookie preferences are no longer remembered in regular browser mode. Even when you’re not browsing in Private mode, Safari periodically asks for cookie consent again, which can be very frustrating.
Apple has adjusted the privacy surrounding cookies with recent updates to macOS and Safari. The Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) is stricter, meaning that cookies are deleted more quickly or are no longer stored. What’s going on and how do you solve it? You can read it in the featured article below.
Further relaxations in the GDPR
In addition to the changes regarding cookies, the new digital package from the European Commission entails even more changes. For example, personal data may soon be used for training AI under certain conditions, without the need for explicit consent from the user.
There will also be simple rules for cybersecurity reporting and companies will be given more time to comply with the requirements of the upcoming Artificial Intelligence Act.
In addition, the procedures surrounding data sharing are being relaxed, so that data exchange and innovation within the EU should be easier.
Criticism from privacy angle
Although these proposals should make daily internet use easier, there are also critical voices. Privacy watchdogs such as European Digital Rights (EDRi) argue that with these relaxations the EC may be ‘undermining the foundations of human rights and technology policy in the EU’. They fear that this will make the protection of personal data less robust.
What does this mean for you?
For the average user, this change mainly means less frustration and more simplicity when surfing the web. No more abundance of pop-ups: your cookie settings will soon be centrally arranged, which will make internet use a lot more pleasant. Naturally, the coming months will reveal how quickly browser makers implement the necessary updates and exactly what consequences the relaxations have for your online privacy.
Available late 2027 or later
The announced changes to the GDPR cookie rules are currently still in the draft or proposal stage. The European Commission presented the formal proposal on November 19, 2025. After that, the proposal must be discussed and adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the Member States, which means that further adjustments are likely.
Optimistic scenarios expect the reforms to be adopted by the end of 2026, with them entering into force in 2027 or later, depending on how quickly negotiations proceed. A transition period of approximately six months is also taken into account for the implementation of the new browser settings for cookie preferences.