Can We Remove Cookie Banners From Our Websites?

An HTTP Cookie is a small collection of data stored on your computer by the browser whenever you visit a website. Although these Cookies make your browsing experience more smooth and easier, there are claims that Cookies are intruding on users’ privacy.

Recently GitHub removed all non-essential Cookies from their website, claiming that they are committed to protect developer privacy.

As developers, we must be aware of when to use Cookies and the rules and regulations governing them.

In this article, I will discuss Cookie law, why GitHub removed Cookies, and what can we do to remove Cookie banners from our websites if needed.

Why We Need Cookies?

Before getting into details, let’s see why we need Cookies in the first place.

Traditionally** Session management** is the most important usage of Cookies in a website. Cookies maintain the authentication state and a reference to the user who viewed the website.

In simple terms, Cookie enables session management storing a reference to the session in user’s browser.

Viewing Cookies in Chrome DevTools

Besides, Cookies can be also used to track user activities performed on a website.

If you use third-party analytics tools such as Google Analytics or embed third-party content in your website, they use Cookies to track visitor activities. For example, Facebook and Google use this data to deliver targeted ads.

These third-party Cookies can interfere with user’s privacy, and that’s why there are rules and regulations to address these issues, which we will look into next.

#frontend #cookies #github