Cookies

[Crackle]

Why do websites ask you to confirm you agree to accepting cookies when they leave them regardless.

Mike

[ppppenguin]

It's all to do with GDPR. Often badly done.

[Terry]

Yes. With some sites it seems to be on a take it or leave it approach, with the cookie banner obscuring most of the screen so that you can't use the site unless you accept - illegal, I would have thought.

Some give you the option of rejecting several classes of cookies except those which they claim are essential for the operation of the site, but there are others that ask you to reject advertising cookies on an individual basis, which is rather illuminating when you scroll down and find well over a hundred individual tick boxes!

[ppppenguin]

Since I block all 3rd party cookies and run Adbloack and Ghostery I'm not too worried about cookies. Every so often I delete the lot which make Firfox forget a few useful things but it's no great problem.

If blocking 3rd party cookies etc causes a site to malfunction then I use Chrome and delete cookies afterwards. There are several legit venue booking sites (Cadogan Hall for example) that won't work without 3rd party cookies. I don't think any legit website should need them in order to function.

[BusyBee]

I usually use Firfox in private browsing mode which automatically deletes cookies and history on leaving anyway. It means that I get hassled on every visit, but I do my best to avoid nasty infections lol

Tracy

[Old Sparky]

I find the constant banners asking you to accept or reject cookies irritating, especially those which, as Terry says, obscure a large part of the page in question. I also find a lot of 'pop-up' advertising banners irritating, as thes also often obscure part of the info. being displayed. At the moment I do not run Adblock or any thing similar. Maybe I should re-install them, although, as other members will know, some sites ask you to disable Adblock 'because advertisements fund our site'

[ppppenguin]

Run Adblock etc. Ads may fund a lot of the web but far too many are horribly intrusive. If the site says it wants you to disable the adblocker but still works then just ignore the message. If it won't work and you still want to look at it (relatively rare) then use another browser for those sites.

I run Firefox with Adblock+ and Ghostery. Also I block all 3rd party cookies. If I need to use a site that objects to all this (some legit theatre booking sites have a problem) I simply copy and paste the URL into Chrome which I run more or less "as is". I routinely clear all cookies in Chrome.

[Alistair D]

My son, who knows about these things, was telling me that Adblock is no longer the preferred option. It seem that they have been taking money from some advertisers to allow  their ads to remain unblocked.

The preferred alternative is Ublock origin. I have had ublock running on my PC since Christmas and it seems to be fine.

More info can be found here  https://www.ublock.org/

Al

[ppppenguin]

I too have heard that Adblock+ is no longer the best option but it still works well enough for me. In other words I haven't noticed any ads intruding.

Thanks for the recommendation of Ublock.

[Refugee]

I have just put it on trial too.