> Though I hate analogies, but this is what this sounds like to me. The difference though is that selling drugs to kids is flat out illegal, no ifs ands or but

> Though I hate analogies, but this is what this sounds like to me. The difference though is that selling drugs to kids is flat out illegal, no ifs ands or buts. Data collection is explicitly legal as long as regulations are followed, so I think it's a flawed analogy. > What is so hard to understand? That the businesses are complying with the GDPR but you're still saying it's a dark pattern and complaining about what they are doing. I need to remind you at this point the topic of discussion is who is responsible for the cookie popups, not the morality or legality of the activity that the EU felt required regulation. The answer is the EU, because that's how they chose to address the issue. > Instead the industry came up with the obnoxious cookie banners tricking users into providing any and all data and selling that data to thousands of "partners". Most cookie banners are not deceptive at all. They are the result of complying with the legislation the EU mandated. In fact, the cookie banners that are as straightforward and clear as possible, and as non intrusive as possible, are an example of a light pattern in this context.