kitten_tech, 17 days ago

@mcc web servers don't "read back" cookies per se, the browser sends them in with the next HTTP request - so the server can ignore it, but nobody will know!

mcc, 17 days ago

@kitten_tech Yeah, you're right, I wasn't really sure how to phrase that.

mcc, 17 days ago

This would serve no purpose except to increase the ambient chaos level of the universe

mcc, 17 days ago

I wonder if GDPR technically requires you to ask consent to set a cookie if you don't use it for tracking or otherwise read it after setting it

mekki, 17 days ago

@mcc This was debated in Canada waaaaay back when PIPEDA was enacted and the then Privacy Commissioner decided that cookies in this context WERE a problem, much to the disappointment of privacy advocates who wanted a focus on actual issues rather than generic "all cookies are bad" fears. I feel like it might have been redressed more recently, but less sure. Looks like latest guidance is from 2019: https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/technology/online-privacy-tracking-cookies/cookies/

mcc, 17 days ago

@mekki This then leads back to a question that is constantly a little confusing to me, "what country or countries am I bound by the laws of?"

whimsy, 17 days ago

@mcc no.
They don't require consent for "functional" cookies either, so any site that asks for consent for those is gaslighting you.

fishidwardrobe, 17 days ago

@mcc GDPR does not require you to ask consent to set any cookie.

(It does require you to use collected data only for the purpose you collected it. So if you're collecting data at random, gotta declare a purpose of some kind, I suppose.)