Wow, people here seem really upset about this. I personally think it's great. Disabling cookies in my browser is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. In addition to not being tracked by ads, I can't manage my bank account online or log into Hacker News. Not fair. This law makes it a requirement for me to be able to opt out of ad tracking, but still be able to log into websites ("essential purposes").
This should not impact ad revenue either; the content site simply says "by proceeding past this page, you consent to being tracked across the entire Internet by our advertisers and anyone they feel like selling your browsing habits to". Then the user can choose between privacy and your content. Most will choose the content, judging from grocery store "preferred customer" programs, and so on.
It's important that regular users be able to easily opt out of cross-site tracking like Google Analytics; as many people would be outraged by the data it collects, if only they knew such a thing was possible. Now they know, because you have to tell them what you're doing. I think that's a good thing.
This should not impact ad revenue either; the content site simply says "by proceeding past this page, you consent to being tracked across the entire Internet by our advertisers and anyone they feel like selling your browsing habits to". Then the user can choose between privacy and your content. Most will choose the content, judging from grocery store "preferred customer" programs, and so on.
It's important that regular users be able to easily opt out of cross-site tracking like Google Analytics; as many people would be outraged by the data it collects, if only they knew such a thing was possible. Now they know, because you have to tell them what you're doing. I think that's a good thing.