Your website does not need cookies
GDPR and respect
The regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy called »General Data Protection Regulation GDPR« is generally a good thing, but unfortunately it makes browsing the web way worse.
Instead of respecting the users privacy I see a lot of websites and web applications which display annoying cookie overlays, force the user accept incomprehensible privacy disclaimers, slow everything down by loading a ton of unneeded JavaScript and still integrate third party tracking software.
Let's face it: we failed. Thanks to GDPR the user is disrespected even more by most of the websites out there.
The obvious solution
Of course there is another way. Your website does not need cookies. Recently we removed all of the cookies on our website and you can do it too. It is not so difficult.
- Remove all third party tracking software.
- If you need website analytics, use a privacy friendly alternative (e. g. Plausible).
- Do not blindly install fancy marketing plugins from a marketplace. Instead understand how a website works and build things yourself.
- Do not use similar techniques as an alternative. By cookies I mean all kind of stored client data. Using local storage instead of cookies will not help you.
I do not really see a good reason to use cookies except for storing user sessions to enable authentication. If you need this functionality, please explain it to the user in your login and register forms.
By the way, I am neither the first nor the only one talking about this (e. g. GitHub).
Not convinced yet?
There is a nice little game out there which will help you understand.