Tell HN: I wish “we use cookies” messages could be globally turned off
I also used to hate this directive, but when I read the description on the website of the European Commission, it is actually much more nuanced than I thought:<p>"However, some cookies are exempt from this requirement. Consent is not required if the cookie is: used for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication, and strictly necessary in order for the provider of an information society service explicitly required by the user to provide that service."
Source: <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/ipg/basics/legal/cookies/index_en.htm#section_2" rel="nofollow">http://ec.europa.eu/ipg/basics/legal/cookies/index_en.htm#se...</a><p>So it turns out the directive isn't as dumb as many believe it to be, but a lot of webmasters wrongly believe that any cookie usage implies having to put up the notice. (Or the nuance was lost on the in-house legal team who briefed the webmaster.)<p>I run a software-as-a-service company in the EU, but only use cookies for login management. Therefore, I do not need to use the warning. But if I would track my users for advertising etc. I'd have to insert the warning in my web app.<p>This thoughtless behaviour reminds me of the thousands of websites which include a "(c) YYYY" copyright notice in their footers, despite this being completely irrelevant in modern copyright law.