Privacy Guides @lemmy.one OnePhoenix @lemmy.world 1 mo. ago

Cookies

Newb question: what does it really mean when I click "Reject Nonessential Cookies"? Am I really being any more private by rejecting these? Just feels greasy like it's a workaround for websites to get my information anyway? Should I navigate away from any sites that suggest this cookie configuration?

12 comments

Sites that give this option usually explain more detail about it. I pretty much always reject nonessential, since they tend to be advertising related.
I use https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/cookie-autodelete/ and only whitelist web sites that I have accounts on.

Everything is fake crap. They pretend they care or don’t share but they can’t prove it. I assume that they are lying.
- this is the correct answer. The internet is cesspit of filth. assume that everything is spying on you by default. Mullvad browser plus VPN is a great setup for this for every day browsing
If you're a bit pro privacy you should use a browser that reset all the cookies at each closes. So it just doesn't matter if you refused cookies or not. And you should 100% use Ublock Origin. If think that by default (or with some tweakings) it blocks most of the banners but if you're not happy with only ublock, I suggest you to try I still don't care about cookies
- Thanks. I currently use hardened Firefox (Arkenfox) and yes I do use unlock.
  
  I think that even if you want to harden your Firefox you should use mullvad browser (or librewolf) and then harden it a bit if you want
what does it really mean when I click "Reject Nonessential Cookies"?

It means "fuck you, if you use my site, you volunteer your personal data".

Should I navigate away from any sites that suggest this cookie configuration?

You would have a bad time since that's pretty much the entirety of the web.

I just set up my browser to block third party cookies, and first party cookies are deleted when I leave the site. The control is in your hands. Then just ignore those cookie preferences entirely. It's like giving someone permission to come into your home but you don't unlock the door.
See here.
As others said, configure your browser to store as few cookies as you can tolerate (because some actually useful stuff will break without them) and forget about these banners.

Although I do enjoy the ones that have actual usable toggles for "legitimate interests" - how nice of them, giving me an option to disable even cookies they can legally store with just a notice, and definitely not just hiding non-essential cookies into a vaguely defined category.

So I always go through the list and disable them one by one. It does nothing but waste my time, but I do it out of spite. Oh, and when I feel like really wasting my time, I send a bug report to whatever support email I can find on the site, about how the cookie banner accidentally let me disable essential cookies and should probably be fixed.
it doesn't matter. you should always be using a private browser like librewolf or mullvad. trust no sites. cookie banners are nothing more than thin legal requirements that make virtually no difference to your privacy. as the other guy on here says, it means, "fuck you. use my site and ill collect your data if i can get it"

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