Comment by almosthere
1 day ago
Man it's 2025 and we still WANT to opt out of cookies visually? Why don't we just have browsers that just do that.
1 day ago
Man it's 2025 and we still WANT to opt out of cookies visually? Why don't we just have browsers that just do that.
If one wants full control cookies could just be disabled by default at the browser level (which also blocks local storage). I do this and just whitelist sites that actually need it (very few).
The issue is some sites won't display any content without cookies, even if it's unnecessary. The amount of React-using sites that will load the entire page only to a second later to fully blank out since the JS couldn't set local storage does get annoying (and can regularly be worked around by disabling Javascript if not used for anything substantial). A handful like this have appeared just this past week on the HN front page.
A further problem is that some if not most sites (that employ any kind of tracking in the first place) do so through a variety of means in no way limited to cookies. Addressing the core problem without legislation that captures intent is not feasible without a new protocol and document data type.
Seems like it should be a browser setting that controls a request header.
Something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Not_Track ? Which failed in part because Microsoft turned it on by default which even further disincentivised publishers from respecting it.
The fix here would be to legally force them to comply with Do Not Track instead of forcing them to post compliant banners
5 replies →
No your browser can just… choose not to send cookies. The website publisher has no say in that.
4 replies →
There's a reason the largest advertising company in the world hasn't sanctioned this move.
Ask your favorite advertising company: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45217269