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Comment by diafygi | Hacker News Reader

"We only use cookies that are necessary for the website functionality. They do not contain any personal data. You can find out more in our privacy policy." - box on pageload with no option except "Got It"

Not a great first impression...

Correct me of I'm wrong, but you only need that box if you share cookie data with third parties, set third party cookies, or use cookies for non-primary business purposes (e.g. not just a session token for logged-in page authentication). So seeing any sort of a box like that indicates that you're going doing something nefarious and against the key differentiator of your product (privacy).

Also, the fact that there's no option to decline is a big giant red flag.

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I will correct you, because you are wrong. You need to let the user know that you are using cookies, even if it is just a login cookie. Have you read the privacy policy?

Also, why would I make such an obvious mistake if what you are saying is correct? By your logic, I should've not put a cookie banner up to be transparent about the sign in cookie, because I am a criminal mastermind, nefarious and full of red flags.

You can use the developer console of any modern browser and see that 123Metrics only sets a login cookie needed for site functionality and nothing else. I explicitly say that in the privacy policy and the fact that no third parties are involved.

I am a member of the EU. GDPR directly applies to me. Why would I risk a startup by not being truthful about this?

From the EU Information Provider's Guide[1]:

"Examples of cookies that generally do NOT require consent: ... Authentication cookies ..."

Also, even if you're correct in needing to have a cookie consent, you're still missing the decline option.

Finally, and I say this with all possible respect as a fellow entrepreneur who completely understands that you are pouring huge amounts of time and effort into this, your response was pretty inappropriate by being so emotionally charged. You sounded personally offended and reacted by lashing out and attacking the criticizer. As a startup, you're going to encounter that kind of criticism very often, so I'd suggest you find a different way of responding to it.

[1]: https://ec.europa.eu/ipg/basics/legal/cookies/index_en.htm#s...

Thank you for coming with constructive feedback in the end. I will review the cookie law and make the necessary changes.

Your first choice of words was not exactly friendly and sounded very accusing with no actual ground, so yes I was personally offended because this is my personal work. I'm working on getting better at not taking it so personally.

Best of luck in all of your endeavors.

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