41

I frequently visit Stack Overflow and other Stack Exchange sites from private browser windows, which means I get the cookie banner over and over.

Does it really have to cover the most useful part of the viewport?

Obnoxious banner covers exactly the parts you want to see

(Not a private window; this one is because I use NoScript when I am logged in.)

I understand that for legal (but still annoying) reasons, this probably needs to be in a place where it is hard to miss when you have something more important than cookies on your mind; but could it be made even a tiny bit less intrusive?

Removing the cookie outline image (I only realize now after trying to figure out a way to describe it that that's what it is supposed to be) or moving it to be next to the buttons rather than on top would already alleviate the usability problem significantly.

Improve this question
14
  • 8
    There is another explanation, the prompt is broken, since it’s being asked multiple times in the same session daily/weekly while the user is continuously logged in
    – Ramhound
    Commented Mar 31, 2021 at 1:18
  • A separate but related proposal now: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/362727/…
    – tripleee
    Commented Mar 31, 2021 at 5:05
  • 1
    Or just revert it to what it was before: a bar at the bottom of the screen.
    – Ollie
    Commented Apr 1, 2021 at 23:20
  • 1
    It's also broken since it does not even honor your choices, prompts you again for your choice eventually, never ending cycle of prompts.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Apr 2, 2021 at 16:53
  • @Ramhound - btw, for iOS users, it is very likely to be caused by the ITP expiring the cookies in 7 days if they are first-party, but set by document.cookie which the SDK uses to set the 2 cookies after consenting. Check the otBannerSdk.js for source.
    – Oleg Valter is with Ukraine
    Commented Apr 6, 2021 at 2:25
  • 5
    Thank you for reporting. This is part of a series of related bugs that the team is currently looking into.
    – Rosie StaffMod
    Commented Apr 7, 2021 at 13:44
  • 2
    In mobile it's impossible to work with.
    – Braiam
    Commented Apr 7, 2021 at 16:00
  • 5
    Yeah, it just got worse.
    – tripleee
    Commented Apr 8, 2021 at 4:48
  • 2
    Now at least in Firefox on IOS I get a notification that my cookie preferences could not be saved. (Still sucks, but at least gives a clue that something is wrong, and a hint at a workaround which may however be unacceptable.)
    – tripleee
    Commented Apr 20, 2021 at 12:32
  • You never click the green button at the top where it says you earned 5245 points?
    – user1271772
    Commented May 18, 2021 at 18:15
  • @user1271772 I've by and large stopped doing that, but it happens sometimes, mainly by accident when I aim for something else (otherwise it would probably say something like 25,000 points).
    – tripleee
    Commented May 18, 2021 at 18:40
  • In this case only about 7000, but on SO maybe 25000 ;)
    – user1271772
    Commented May 19, 2021 at 5:42
  • It displays accrued rep across all sites in the network. On here I would have about +600.
    – tripleee
    Commented May 19, 2021 at 6:23
  • I stand corrected :)
    – user1271772
    Commented May 19, 2021 at 16:29

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
13
+50

I also found that cookie banner to be unnecessarily large in size.

The answer from SE so far says:

"we need the cookie banner to be visible enough that it won’t be missed.

but it can still be visible without covering up important buttons.

Indeed the EDPB guidelines say:

"Cookie walls (i.e. forced consent conditional for access to a website) cannot be considered valid consent, because user consents must be freely given and specific."

and the cookie banner on SE does force users to allow the "mandatory" cookies in order to rid themselves of the banner.

The answer from SE also says:

"Our goal is to collect user preferences, whether they would like to consent to cookies or decline them"

but some users may not want to give their preferences (especially if they think that not clicking any button at all may avoid them from allowing the "mandatory" cookies too). Others may be on a work computer or a library computer and need to check an answer to something quite quickly, and may not want to go through the hassle of providing their preferences.

While inconvenient, at least on desktop browsers it's possible to zoom in and out until the banner's placement relative to other features of the site is not as invasive. For example, the cookie banner in the lower-right corner would prevent me from clicking the "chat' button, but if I zoomed out just enough, I'd be able to click the chat button again. Zooming in-and-out is fairly easy either with CTRL+Plus or CTRL+Minus on the keyboard or moving the mouse's wheel forward and backward while holding CTRL on the keyboard (i.e. it doesn't take *too* long). Hopefully this will help for the case in your screenshot!

What was most inconvenient for me was the cookie banners in the mobile version and clicking "full site" or switching the browser's setting to "desktop mode" did not help. The worst was that I could not properly do reviews, because the buttons were behind the cookie banner. In the end I followed this user's advice and installed ublock on my desktop, and to install it on my android device I needed to actually download and install Firefox for Android for the first time because ublock doesn't work with Chrome on Android devices.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    In my default resolution (while completely unzoomed) the cookie popup spans 80% of the vertical height of my screen. zooming out enough to hide that would make any content i'm looking for unreadable.
    – Kevin B
    Commented May 24, 2021 at 18:22
-16

Unfortunately no, we need the cookie banner to be visible enough that it won’t be missed. Our goal is to collect user preferences, whether they would like to consent to cookies or decline them. Once they’ve provided their preferences, they should not see the cookie banner again.

Improve this answer
5
  • 21
    "Won't be missed" is not equivalent to "ruins every page visit for users with aggressive anti-cookie preferences". Surely the first can be achieved without the second.
    – tripleee
    Commented May 1, 2021 at 8:17
  • 14
    This is about the worst UI decision I have seen in a long time and is an exceptionally poor experience for privacy minded folks who do not keep cookies around. Very poor explanation. I expected better from Stack Exchange.
    – James
    Commented May 10, 2021 at 18:22
  • 30
    "Once they’ve provided their preferences, they should not see the cookie banner again." Incorrect! If a person refuses to store cookies or deletes them, he will see the banner again. If a person uses the next-door library computer, he will see the banner again. If there is a bug in your code, banners again. Stop trying to force every person inside the trackers dream's category and learn from Stack's answers that users are fed up with popups.
    – Quasímodo
    Commented May 10, 2021 at 18:46
  • @Des I see this popup dozens of times a day, every day. If I click "accept" or "costomise/confirm" that just makes it appear three or four times (I don't bother closing the banner anymore).
    – Abhi Beckert
    Commented Apr 17, 2022 at 22:03
  • I think the cookie banner can be visible and not missed without making it difficult to interact with the other content on the page until the banner is dismissed. At least make it a little smaller.
    – O5 Command Stands With Ukraine
    Commented Feb 25, 2023 at 2:24

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .