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Surely there's an easier way: Standardize an extension to the Set-Cookie header for a "Purpose" field. This field if unset means the cookie is essential (local

Surely there's an easier way: Standardize an extension to the Set-Cookie header for a "Purpose" field. This field if unset means the cookie is essential (local laws now still apply so if a website misrepresents a non-essential cookie as essential then that's illegal just the same way as implementing a fake cookie banner or not implementing one (if you need it) is illegal). Now in my browser I can set my cookie preferences to only store and send essential cookies. For other tracking methods that don't use cookies there's already DNT and all that's needed is for a local law update to clarify what it means and to enforce its use. These things would actually make sense as opposed to the current situation where the EU makes it sound like cookies are something a website forcibly stores on your computer and uses.

polocode 6y ago
Beautiful technical solution. Wouldn’t it depend on all website creators and all browser makers to pretty much commit to changes in their code at the same time, before the first consent banner would actually go away? How do you get them to do that?
- Thorrez 6y ago
  You could do user agent sniffing and skip showing the banner if you know the browser supports cookie purposes. Of course user agent sniffing tends to cause a lot of problems, so this probably isn't a good idea.
  - Arch-TK 6y ago
    Or just have the browser advertise its support for the extension (e.g. yet another header).
- Arch-TK 6y ago
  Yes it would require everyone to make changes, but like the other person who responded to your comment it probably wouldn't need to happen at the same time. The point being is that it's probably a bit late now but if this was the original solution proposed by the EU the end result would be a lot cleaner while still taking about the same amount of effort (at the end of the day web developers still had to look at all the cookies they set, categorise them, implement warning banners and then correctly handle responses.

polocode 6y ago

Beautiful technical solution. Wouldn’t it depend on all website creators and all browser makers to pretty much commit to changes in their code at the same time, before the first consent banner would actually go away? How do you get them to do that?

Thorrez 6y ago
You could do user agent sniffing and skip showing the banner if you know the browser supports cookie purposes. Of course user agent sniffing tends to cause a lot of problems, so this probably isn't a good idea.
- Arch-TK 6y ago
  Or just have the browser advertise its support for the extension (e.g. yet another header).
Arch-TK 6y ago
Yes it would require everyone to make changes, but like the other person who responded to your comment it probably wouldn't need to happen at the same time. The point being is that it's probably a bit late now but if this was the original solution proposed by the EU the end result would be a lot cleaner while still taking about the same amount of effort (at the end of the day web developers still had to look at all the cookies they set, categorise them, implement warning banners and then correctly handle responses.