The EU did not mandate a cookie banner. The law requires you to ask for consent before collecting data you do not strictly need. Websites decided that they'd r

The EU did not mandate a cookie banner. The law requires you to ask for consent before collecting data you do not strictly need. Websites decided that they'd rather bother their visitors with cookie banners than stop collecting their data. Hacker News does not have a cookie banner - despite using cookies. It doesn't need to ask for consent, because it has no intention of abusing your data.