Any website that's asking for your permission upfront is not getting informed and specific consent; it's getting general consent. A decently-designed website w

Any website that's asking for your permission upfront is not getting informed and specific consent; it's getting general consent. A decently-designed website would just tell you it's about to set a cookie with a “more info” link. If you choose to go ahead, that's informed specific consent. Besides, under the GDPR companies can collect and store personal data without needing consent if it's for one of the listed permitted purposes. They only need consent at all if they have no good reason to collect the data — consent is really supposed to be the excuse of last resort.