Rejecting Online Cookies Might Not Actually Do Anything

[RAMROD 117,045]

California-based auditor webXray reports that tech giants have continued to use cookies to track users across the internet, even when website visitors reject them. Google, Microsoft, and Meta have all disputed the findings.

The now-ubiquitous cookie banners emerged in response to European privacy laws requiring explicit consent before deploying advertising and tracking cookies.

After years of complaints about dense, manipulative prompts that users often click through without reading, regulators have begun pushing for simpler rules. Still, webXray's March 2026 audit found nearly 200 ad services ignoring opt-out signals from California users, sidestepping rules modeled on Europe's framework.

Across the sample, 55% of sites set cookies even after users declined them, and 78% of consent banners do nothing to enforce the user's choice. webXray estimates ad tech companies could pay some $5.8 billion in fines instead of complying. On sites using Google or Microsoft ad networks, the systems frequently issue commands to drop cookies even after receiving explicit rejection signals.

The audit traces this behavior directly in open network traffic, suggesting little effort to conceal it. Microsoft's network reportedly ignores about half of opt-out signals and still tracks users on 35% of client sites, resulting in an estimated $390 million in fines. Google's figures are higher, with 86% of opt-out requests ignored and tracking active on 77% of sites, for an estimated $2.31 billion in penalties.

Meta's implementation stands out for a different reason: its tracking code does not appear to check for opt-out signals at all. Among sites that do detect those signals, 69% still ignore them, with 21% actively tracking users. webXray estimates Meta may have paid as much as $9.3 billion in fines to date

https://www.techspot.com/news/112073-clicking-reject-cookies-might-not-actually-do-anything.html

Edited April 17 by RAMROD

[amourssauvages 181]

What a surprise

 

[HotLikeMexico 6,543]

I’m so sick of every website going on, you get a prompt to accept or deny cookies, show location, etc. Browsing the internet has become so annoying in this day and age. 

[southpaw773 4,366]

im so tired of the “accept cookies” boxes on these sites!

[dynamite 66,623]

1 hour ago, HotLikeMexico said:

I’m so sick of every website going on, you get a prompt to accept or deny cookies, show location, etc. Browsing the internet has become so annoying in this day and age. 

Me too, it's so irritating. Using the internet isn't fun at all anymore.

[Lucas 31,125]

1 hour ago, HotLikeMexico said:

I’m so sick of every website going on, you get a prompt to accept or deny cookies, show location, etc. Browsing the internet has become so annoying in this day and age. 

+ the spam ads.

And lately I noticed that there are more and more news websites that let you read the first few lines of an article and as soon as you start scrolling down, the website asks you to pay to continue reading 

[zevthepaparazzo 2,428]

i thought i was slick denying everything everytime 

[ThisGuyTony 34,874]

I still don’t know what cookies are 

[InTheCloset 21,793]

I never bothered to know what cookies are and always accepted them

[Economy 52,847]

8 hours ago, amourssauvages said:

What a surprise

 

Me too im so shocked at this...

 

[Pink Eye 4,469]

1 hour ago, ThisGuyTony said:

I still don’t know what cookies are 

 

40 minutes ago, InTheCloset said:

I never bothered to know what cookies are and always accepted them

It tracks what you click, pages you view, time you spend on a page, it "remembers" your IP to keep you logged in when you leave the site, and also, it does cross-site tracking if both sites you visited use, for example, the same ad engine or social media account to log in. That's why when you buy Vans shoes online logged in with a Google account, every website with a Google ad engine will start showing Vans ads. Nowadays Google does it even when you say "I need shoes" out loud and the phone mic caught it, cause when we create a Google account we basically agree to our audio being captured. It's very ad centered cause that's what the internet is about nowadays, big tech revolves around the ad system for profit and they basically build our consuming profiles to personalize the ads more and more and make them more effective to trigger us into consuming. Even the time we stop at a picture and the size of our phone screen is tracked to measure our interests and our financial reality to be more certain and increase the effectiveness of ads so more people, small businesses and companies choose to pay for online ads so Google and Meta increase their profit. 

Smaller companies use session cookies to understand their clients preferences on their website and then it stops, bigger companies like Meta and Google use it to cross-track and polish their ad system.

[27monster27 15,859]

My surprise left quickly when I was like "well that makes sense" lol.

[Ilia Malinin 2,879]

this is why i delete my google cache once a month.  f*ck them cookies.