Understanding cookie banners and tracking

In short: Cookie banners confront users on nearly every website, asking for consent to use cookies and similar tracking technologies. Understanding the various options helps people make more conscious decisions about their privacy.

In more detail: Legally, websites in the EU are required to obtain genuine consent for non-essential cookies.

In detail

• Necessary cookies: These cookies are required for basic website functions, such as the shopping cart or login, and don’t need consent.
• Statistics cookies: They collect anonymised usage data to understand and improve behaviour on the website.
• Marketing cookies: These cookies often track browsing behaviour across multiple websites to serve personalised advertising.
• Reject all: Most banners now offer an equally prominent way to reject all non-essential cookies with one click.
• Granular settings: Advanced settings menus allow individual categories of cookies to be enabled or disabled separately.
• Dark patterns: Some banners use misleading design to push users toward consent, such as visually emphasised accept buttons.
• Alternative technologies: Even without classic cookies, techniques like fingerprinting can identify users, which is why privacy involves more than just the cookie question (werbung-im-netz-erkennen, filterblase-und-algorithmen).