cookies and banners

hdh74

Pretty much all websites have those annoying banners about cookies that you have to click to get rid of. Sometimes I click them and sometimes I just ignore them. But does it actually make any difference as to whether you get the cookies or not? Anyone know please?

sleepyjones

They have to add the cookies notice, it was part of the GDPR/EU Cookie Laws that changed a few months ago.

Clicking them makes no difference, if the site uses cookies then you have to acknowledge and accept the fact that they are "tracking" you in some way, clicking accept, or ignoring it, and continuing to use the site is deemed as acknowledgement that you accept and are happy to continue.

If you were to click "No, I do not accept" then chances are you'd get pumped out to Google or something because if you don't accept the cookies then you can't use the website.

In Short : They don't write the website two ways, one way if you accept and one way if you don't, if you're using the site you're getting the cookies ... if you click No cookies, you won't be able to use the site and will be redirected to Google or something, if you continue to use the site (ie Ignore the message) then you are agreeing and accept their cookie policy.

hdh74

As I thought but wanted to check, thank you for the very clear answer. I feel all informed now.

sleepyjones

I spent months writing and adding Cookie Notices ... was a nightmare.

They don't actually do anything as far as updating a database or anything, it's just a message to tell you that you are being tracked on your journey through the site.

Skilos

I keep getting the cookie banners come up nearly every time on sites like the mag dailies, after previously clicking 'accept' or whatever. Google was no help on this.I'm on Firefox . Do any tech whizzes here have any idea why this might be?

sleepyjones

It mostly depends on the actual website, ironically they'll (generally) store the information in a cookie to say that you've accepted the policy, but in that cookie they can set the timeout. Most developers would say a month, so after a month the cookie will expire and you'll be asked again if you agree. They may have only set it to 24 hours or whatever.
They could also set it in a session variable, so as soon as you leave the site the session expires so when you return you will be asked again.

Not really a lot you can do about that unfortunately. One thing to check is that in your Firefox settings you're not setting cookies to delete after each session, there's a setting "Delete Cookies" or "Expire Cookies", not sure where / what it's called in Firefox, if that's set to delete after 1 day or a short period of time then you will get re-asked quite often about accepting cookies.

There's also extensions available for Firefox ie : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/i-dont-care-about-cookies/

I don't know if they work though, it might depend on the website but might be worth giving it a try.