Ask HN: What is the least obnoxious way to ask for cookie permissions? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What is the least obnoxious way to ask for cookie permissions?

#21

Post by IanCal » Fri, Sep 29, 2023, 1:36 PM UTC

sdflhasjd wrote: post #7

I think the effort would be best spent avoiding cookies and trackers in the first place. What do you plan on using cookies for? There might be some ways of doing similar things without cookies or trackers (server-side analytics for example) that are more respective of users and also eliminiate the need for any banners at all. I know my company's website has a pointless cookie modal - the necessary cookies are just fo…

> What do you plan on using cookies for? There might be some ways of doing similar things without cookies or trackers (server-side analytics for example) that are more respective of users and also eliminiate the need for any banners at all.

For EU things you must make sure what you're doing with this aligns with consent from the user / other justifications. Whether it's server side or cookies doesn't matter for GDPR, it's the collection & use of the data.

To OP, try not to collect data at all, and if you need to then make the consent banner not block the use of the website. Also don't animate it in, just have it there.

The ICO guidance in the UK is pretty good https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-re...

Note that consent is not always the best justification for lawful processing.

Re: Ask HN: What is the least obnoxious way to ask for cookie permissions?

#22

Post by abcd_f » Fri, Sep 29, 2023, 1:37 PM UTC

rogerian wrote: post #11

Cookie banners have ruined the internet! I you have to have one I'd suggest it have a Reject All button which makes the banner go away without any further clicks. Nothing is more soul destroying than having to click several times to make the nonsense go away.

I don't like them as any other tech person, but lets give a credit where the credit is due. Ads and SEO ruined it way more thoroughly than cookie prompts.

Re: Ask HN: What is the least obnoxious way to ask for cookie permissions?

#23

Post by giladvdn » Fri, Sep 29, 2023, 1:39 PM UTC

jacobsimon wrote: post #16

sdflhasjd wrote: post #7

I think the effort would be best spent avoiding cookies and trackers in the first place. What do you plan on using cookies for? There might be some ways of doing similar things without cookies or trackers (server-side analytics for example) that are more respective of users and also eliminiate the need for any banners at all. I know my company's website has a pointless cookie modal - the necessary cookies are just fo…

Can you explain how server side analytics works without cookies?

You can use IP based tracking or something like a query parameter to track within that session

Re: Ask HN: What is the least obnoxious way to ask for cookie permissions?

#24

Post by starbugs » Fri, Sep 29, 2023, 1:39 PM UTC

diffeomorphism wrote: post #15

bglazer wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if you put the “reject all”, button behind a “customize cookie settings” click, you’re a bad, anti-social person.

Also probably illegal. That part of the law is not yet enforced very much, but there have been a few rulings.

The question always is whether there's a negative consequence outweighing the "positive" incentive of trying to increase favorable consent decisions by using dark patterns.

I had the pleasure to learn a lot about this while working in the higher levels of some german company with a somewhat questionable track record.

Here's what you can do (only applies to Germany, but might be similar elsewhere):

Complain to the data protection authority of your local state in writing. These complaints will be followed up by the authority and if enough of them accumulate, the company will have a bad time and the aforementioned incentive equation will be bent towards the end that favors user privacy.

Don't write angry emails. Nobody cares and you waste time.

Re: Ask HN: What is the least obnoxious way to ask for cookie permissions?

#25

Post by simonw » Fri, Sep 29, 2023, 1:39 PM UTC

jacobsimon wrote: post #16

sdflhasjd wrote: post #7

I think the effort would be best spent avoiding cookies and trackers in the first place. What do you plan on using cookies for? There might be some ways of doing similar things without cookies or trackers (server-side analytics for example) that are more respective of users and also eliminiate the need for any banners at all. I know my company's website has a pointless cookie modal - the necessary cookies are just fo…

Can you explain how server side analytics works without cookies?

You log the IP address, referrer, user agent and the requested page URL but you don't set a unique cookie to identify the user.

This still gets you plenty of actionable analytics information: where geographically people are located (via GeoIP), what pages are most popular, what platforms (including desktop vs mobile) people are using.

I've been using https://plausible.io for analytics on a bunch of my sites for a couple of years now and I honestly don't miss the extra level of detail I got from cookie-based analytics I've used in the past.

Re: Ask HN: What is the least obnoxious way to ask for cookie permissions?

#26

Post by IanCal » Fri, Sep 29, 2023, 1:39 PM UTC

warrenm wrote: post #3

Personally ... I think the best option (if you have to have cookies (and there are plenty of reasons you may want/need them)) is to have screen-wide, contrasting-color, short-top-to-bottom bar with a single OK or Accept button for dismissal Do not give people options about cookies - either they accept (and dismiss the notice), or they leave When I am presented with cookie options , I start to wonder why there are "un…

> When I am presented with cookie options, I start to wonder why there are "unnecessary" cookies present: why are you letting me accept "necessary" cookies or "all" cookies? Why would you have ones that are not needed? Seems hyper sketch ... and I'll go elsewhere (or reject all)

Because some are required for the functioning of the site. They can justify dealing with those without you approving it.

Some are there for advertising, that's not required for you to use the site but they'd definitely like to. So they need you to actively consent.

Re: Ask HN: What is the least obnoxious way to ask for cookie permissions?

#27

Post by giladvdn » Fri, Sep 29, 2023, 1:40 PM UTC

abcd_f wrote: post #22

rogerian wrote: post #11

Cookie banners have ruined the internet! I you have to have one I'd suggest it have a Reject All button which makes the banner go away without any further clicks. Nothing is more soul destroying than having to click several times to make the nonsense go away.

I don't like them as any other tech person, but lets give a credit where the credit is due. Ads and SEO ruined it way more thoroughly than cookie prompts.

This would make for a great blog post: top 10 things that ruined the internet. I nominate generative AI for the version of this post two years from now.

Re: Ask HN: What is the least obnoxious way to ask for cookie permissions?

#28

Post by mnw21cam » Fri, Sep 29, 2023, 1:40 PM UTC

foft wrote: post #8

Cookie permissions and EU advertising options should absolutely be built into the browser, it makes no sense for the user to have permissions on each site individually like this with a different system on each one. Then the user can centrally review what permissions they gave, revoke them etc. So no sites should have these kind of approval banners.

I think the closest we are going to get to that is the Consent-o-matic plugin, where you set your permissions centrally and it automatically fills in the forms for every web site it can.

And that leads through to another tip to make your consent request less obnoxious - make sure that plugins like Consent-o-matic do actually work correctly and invisibly with your site.

Re: Ask HN: What is the least obnoxious way to ask for cookie permissions?

#29

Post by YetAnotherNick » Fri, Sep 29, 2023, 1:40 PM UTC

starbugs wrote: post #4

The best thing one can do is not use cookies -> no need for a consent banner. If that's not an option, the next best thing is to have an overlay that is as honest as possible and most importantly provides not only an "Accept all", but also a "Reject all" button. Don't use dark patterns, basically. That is, use the same color, style and size for each of those buttons. My experience is that most users are so used to th…

Except this is not the question. Why is it so hard for people to understand cookies are absolutely needed even if you just want to calculate retention or number of unique visitors.

Re: Ask HN: What is the least obnoxious way to ask for cookie permissions?

#30

Post by LordHeini » Fri, Sep 29, 2023, 1:40 PM UTC

Apart from the others suggestions.

Make sure that it does work with extensions like I don't care about cookies. That one is usually easy but make sure it works with the uBlock script too.

Do not have that the banner force any site reloads. Analytics for example can be loaded into a page wihtout reloading.

If that is done the ad blocker users will never notice the banner.