Ever clicked "Yes" to an online pop-up banner that read, "I have read and agree to the terms and conditions" — even though you didn't and had no idea what would happen to your personal data?

This regulation is for you.

The European Commission's proposed e-Privacy Regulation announced Tuesday would restrict how companies listen in on calls and read messages and emails over telecoms networks and the internet.

The Commission is taking aim at the annoying "cookie" banners that have taken over the internet in past years. They're asking websites to get rid of the banners, forcing websites to try harder to make it clear to people if they're going to collect and sell their personal data.

So-called cookies are small files copied onto a person's computer or mobile device that can do things like remembering the content of a shopping bag, a username and a password. Thanks to cookies, if you were looking for holiday houses one day, chances are ads for accommodations would pop up on the side of other websites you visit.

Cookies and more sophisticated software "trackers" are increasingly used by advertisers, growing into a €160 billion global online ad industry, according a recent report by Statista.

"If you set a high level of protection, it doesn't mean you won't get ads. But you'll get more boring ads" — Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip

Under the proposed rules, consumers would choose a level of protection in their internet browsers, such as Google's Chrome browser or Apple's Safari. Websites would then read the users' security preferences and load web pages accordingly. Only websites serving customized ads will still have to ask visitors if they can copy cookies onto their devices for marketing purposes.

"Internet users do not have to click on a banner every time they visit a website," Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip said. "They will be able to make an informed choice."

The banners haven't always been there though. When the European Parliament reviewed the e-Privacy Directive in 2009, it included the obligation for companies storing data to have people opt in, rather than opt out. Coders started building banners across websites to comply.

Now, the Commission wants them to take down the banners again for anything that's not invading people's privacy.

"If you set a high level of protection, it doesn't mean you won't get ads. But you'll get more boring ads," he said. "If you set it lower, you get more customized ads, more relevant ads, and that's not always bad ... De facto, I believe many people will want to switch [on cookies]."

Under the new law, ad companies or websites serving the ads could be fined as much as €10 million, or 2 percent of their annual turnover, if they fail to ask for people's consent in an honest way.

Ad companies, however, are skeptical of whether EU lawmakers can handle the technicalities at all.

“People who thought cookie banners were annoying will be disappointed to hear that things won’t get better,” said Townsend Feehan, head of the Interactive Advertising Bureau for Europe, which lobbies for the online advertising industry trading heavily in data gathered through marketing cookies.

“Without significant improvements to the proposed text, users would have to actively change the settings of every single device and app they use, and more actively deal with constant requests for permission for the use of harmless cookies when visiting websites and using other digital services,” Feehan said.

As part of a broader privacy push, the Commission is also designing a labeling system to easily mark privacy standards of websites within the General Data Protection Regulation, which goes into effect May 2018. The icons would alert internet users when their data is unprotected, but could also serve as a system for websites to figure out whether a user is cookie-friendly.

But a concern clouds the new proposal: that, if every website offering customized ads starts asking for the consent every six months, it will again create a "cookie fatigue" among internet users that hurts rather than helps awareness about how information is stored and tracked.

Lawmakers aim to have a final text ready by May 2018, when the EU's big privacy law called General Data Protection Regulation enters into force.

The extra step could hurt media offering customized ads on their pages — and that ad revenue is what's keeping most online media, including social media platforms, alive these days.

"Consumers can't automatically receive free media, they'll have to go and turn off the settings. They might not end up getting the free media they want," said James Waterworth, a vice president for the tech business group CCIA Europe.

The fight over how cookies and trackers will be governed in Europe will move to Parliament and Council in coming months. Lawmakers aim to have a final text ready by May 2018, when the EU's big privacy law called General Data Protection Regulation enters into force.

This article was updated to clarify the impact of the Commission's proposal.