Quick Tip: How To Get Rid of Annoying Cookie Banners
Cookie banners are notorious around the web. They are completely useless and unnecessary. They are simply a response to the GDPR regulations in Europe, which require all websites that Europeans could possibly view to proclaim how they use Cookies regarding privacy and security.
It’s a lazy scapegoat that doesn’t address the very real privacy and security concerns. It's a blanket response to a nuanced issue in terms of how some third-party cookies are abused. Cookies are a vital part of websites, and most websites require them.
If you’re sick of seeing these banners, you can use an adblocker to mostly disable them. Here are three ways to do that.
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UBlock Origin
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You can go into the Settings for the UBlock Origin extension. Click on the icon in the upper right of Firefox next to the other extensions, and click the three gears icon at the bottom.
It's worth noting here that Google Chrome no longer officially supports UBlock Origin, and due to a fallout with the developer, which is entirely Google's fault, that developer has abandoned the extension in Chrome. There are workarounds for a few months that allow it to function, but you'll need to switch to Firefox to continue using it.
On the “Filters” page, scroll down to the “Annoyances” checkboxes.
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Check the ones you want to see less of, such as “EasyList Cookie”, and “Fanboy’s Annoyance”, which were created by users of UBlock Origin. You’ll notice I don’t have some of these checked, as I prefer other methods.
Ghostery
The option I prefer, and that honestly seems to work better, is using Ghostery. It offers the option of blocking cookie banners, where you can clearly see the option to enable “never consent” on a particular website, or you can apply a blanket setting to ALL websites, which is what I do.
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I Don’t Care About Cookies
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A third option is an extension called “I don’t care about cookies“. I have it enabled as well for the heck of it, but since Ghostery works so well, I’m not sure how effective this extension is by comparison.
Consent-O-Matic
A team of privacy researchers from Aarhus University has created a browser add-on called Consent-O-Matic that puts you back in control. This tool lets you set your data preferences once, then automatically manages cookie pop-ups for you.
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This means no more clicking through confusing menus or feeling pressured to "agree." It's a simple, privacy-first solution for a more seamless browsing experience, and frankly, so you won't see those truly useless banners on most websites from now on.
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