That being said, I do continually have to click through ridiculous GDPR cookie announcements, as I generally browse incognito, and thus am subject to cookie warnings on every web site every time. "Thanks, EU. Somehow, because I have cookies disabled, I get every cookie warning imaginable. Good job, idiots."
Answer: they can't. The EU politicians did not think this through.
Like, just send everyone a postcard about cookies and be done with it. Literally this is the dumbest law ever. I love consumer protections, and yet this is the most idiotic thing we all have to deal with on a literal daily basis because nobody understands how cookies work, apparently.
And how do you do that, for any user not logged in? You understand how this works, right? THROUGH COOKIES. WHICH YOU HAVE TO NOTIFY THE VISITOR OF.
It's literally the dumbest law imaginable.
The very fact that a website is presenting a cookie popup to you is effectively an admission that the website is engaging in unsavory practices. When I see one, I think twice about using the site.
Cookie warnings are like "known to the state of California to cause cancer" warnings. If not displaying a warning creates serious risks, and there is no compensation for legal costs to prove that the warning wasn't necessary, everyone will display the warning everywhere as a precaution.
True, and if that's all the data collection is about, then there's no need for a cookie banner.
> If not displaying a warning creates serious risks
It does not create serious risks. It's pretty clear what sort of data collection is risky, and any site will know if they're squarely in the "safe zone". The risk is if they want to engage in sensitive data collection, or if they want to push as closely as possible to that.
"The General Data Protection Regulation requires you to consider whether there is an opportunity to achieve the objective through processing less data or if the aim can be achieved through less intrusive means." [1]
Don't blame the GDPR for the plague of useless cookie warnings; blame lazy developers who would rather thoughtlessly burden you with shitty UX than try to stop tracking you.