Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Cookie banners
Raised as a usability problem by 2,849 people on Hacker News over 19 years (2008–2026), in 2,044 threads.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
- Something wrong here?
Consent popups are artificially hard to refuseReviewed
20082026 Opting out of tracking is nearly impossibleUnreviewed
20082026- Opting out of trackers requires deselecting each one individually2026-08-14
- Saying no to all tracking takes many dialogs while accepting takes one click2026-05-27
- Accepting is easy but refusing tracking is made the hardest option2026-05-26
- Something wrong here?
Constant prompts train users to click accept without readingReviewed
20082026 Opting out requires many clicks through hundreds of partnersUnreviewed
20082026- Must scroll through hundreds of partners to disable legitimate interest, no reject-all2026-08-01
- Had to click 26 switches to opt out of tracking2025-12-11
- Opting out requires toggling each option off separately for every vendor2025-12-10
Unlabelled consent toggles don't show whether they are on or offUnreviewed
20082026- Legitimate interest toggles are pre-set to allow, mirroring consent, so refusing is hard to achieve2026-07-30
- Can't tell which switch position means consent2026-06-04
- Consent form requires clicking through a huge number of toggles2026-04-30
- Something wrong here?
Reject or accept button does nothing or loops backReviewed
20082026 - Something wrong here?
Must answer a consent prompt separately on every siteReviewed
20082026 - Something wrong here?
Cookie banner stacked with newsletter, chat and other popupsReviewed
20082026 - Something wrong here?
Content blocked until cookies are acceptedReviewed
20082026 Dialog stays confusing even when translated, forcing people to leaveUnreviewed
20082026- Cookie dialog is confusing even when translated, forcing the reader to leave2025-08-12
- Cookie banners appear in an unfamiliar language on opening sites2024-07-16
- Cookie popup is in German and user can't tell which button opts out of tracking2023-12-13
- Something wrong here?
Unclear what data or tracking you're agreeing toReviewed
20082026 Misleadingly labelled categories make opting out confusingUnreviewed
20082026- Banners force separate category choices even when users only want functional or performance cookies2026-05-26
- Legitimate-interest cookies hidden in greyed-out or misleading toggle categories users can't turn off2025-10-22
- Cookie menus force users through confusing, misleadingly labeled categories to opt out2025-07-20
Maze of pop-ups with manipulative design before accessing sitesUnreviewed
20082026- Hard to tell which checkboxes and dark patterns to avoid on each site2026-03-03
- Dark patterns, cookie banners, autoplay videos and general slowness frustrate users2025-06-01
- Dark pattern modal boxes ruin sites and add complexity for visitors2022-12-09
Consent popups and CAPTCHAs block people before contentUnreviewed
20082026- Websites show captchas, cookie banners and newsletter pop-ups that get in the way2025-10-31
- Cookie consent popups and CAPTCHAs block people before they reach content2025-09-21
- People must dismiss notifications, solve captchas and reject cookies just to get things done2025-07-17
Choices buried behind an Options link with 1262 partners listedUnreviewed
20082026- Consent dialog buries choices behind an Options link and lists 1262 partners2026-05-04
- Consent popups present long partner lists and tracking choices that are hard to get through2023-08-01
- No button to refuse all partners, so each of about 50 must be unticked one by one2020-04-27
Sign-up popups block content and force users to submit fake emailsUnreviewed
20082026- Obtrusive sign-up popups block content and force users to submit fake emails2023-07-12
- Subscription popups and fake support chats block content and confuse users2021-08-23
- Pre-checked newsletter boxes and fake download ads make it hard to do what you want2013-07-24
Consent dialog as first onboarding step slows signupUnreviewed
20082026- Multiple consent dialogs appear, and back button leads to newsletter signup page2022-08-18
- Consent dialog as first onboarding step makes an already hard signup funnel harder2018-05-29
- Aggressive sign-up boxes are designed to manipulate people into signing up2016-05-10
Pre-checked optional settings are silently acceptedUnreviewed
20082026- Big green button quietly accepts tracking while the choice-saving option is a small gray button2022-03-29
- Big green button silently accepts all optional settings that were pre-checked as necessary-only2021-05-03
- Big green button silently accepts all non-essential options, overriding the pre-checked defaults2021-05-03
Can't tell which option to pick in non-English popupsUnreviewed
20082026- Popup text can't be selected, so it's hard to read what you're agreeing to2025-09-24
- Popups are in a language the user can't read, with no option to switch2024-10-16
- Can't tell which option to select in a non-English popup2021-10-27
A 'maybe later' option pushes people into not decidingUnreviewed
20082026- "Maybe later" dismiss option is a dark pattern pushing users into not deciding2026-09-22
- "Maybe later" option is a dark pattern that pushes people into features they don't want2023-12-02
- "Maybe later" option keeps prompting the user, a dark pattern2023-06-17
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Repeated login walls and nagging modals pushed on users constantly2026-11-03
- Constant cookie and consent dialogs and pop-ups interrupt every site visit2026-10-30
- Scrolling breaks when an ad blocker hides the cookie prompt, which must be accepted to interact2026-10-23
- No simple reject-all button; rejecting cookies leads to subscribing instead2026-10-15
- Website makes cookie settings impossible to read and configure2026-10-14
- Cookie pop-up takes thousands of pixels of empty space, forcing scrolling on mobile2026-10-14
- Hundreds of cookie choices pre-selected with no way to reject all2026-10-14
- Sites use banners to hoodwink users into being monetised, annoying them2026-10-12
- Banners are deliberately designed to be as annoying as legally possible2026-10-12
- Constant permission prompts get users annoyed, so they click allow on everything2026-10-12
- Reject option is hidden or harder to find than accept all2026-10-12
- Consent banners are designed to annoy people into accepting2026-10-12
- Cookie popup has confusing duplicate options, making it hard to tell which to pick2026-10-12
- Users accept all by reflex and miss that they can reject non-essential cookies2026-10-12
- Per-site consent banners reappear every few weeks, so users must keep dealing with them2026-10-11
- Reject and manage-settings options are hidden while accept-all is bright and prominent2026-10-11
- Accept all button is prominent while privacy choices are hidden, pushing users into accepting2026-10-09
- No reject-all button; must manually reject 16 interests and 1,746 vendors2026-10-07
- Must pre-approve cookies and policies before seeing any content2026-10-07
- "Maybe later" dismiss option is a dark pattern pushing users into not deciding2026-09-22
- Cookie banner and modal popup get in the way of reading the site2026-09-20
- Too many cookie opt-out steps to get through the site2026-09-20
- Consent dialogs use dark patterns that make it easy to accidentally agree2026-09-20
- Cookie banner lacks a reject all button, forcing click-through to reach the site2026-09-20
- Cookie consent popups are tedious to dismiss on every site2026-09-19
- Cookie popups, bot checks, paywalls and sign-in gates block content before users can reach it2026-09-19
- Cookie consent is confusing, so the commenter left the site2026-09-16
- Deliberately verbose and annoying banners push people into accepting tracking2026-09-13
- Banners appear every session and get ignored, so people miss important consent choices2026-09-05
- Cookie banners are annoying to deal with on every site visit2026-09-04
- Cookie notices are a repeated annoyance every time a site is clicked2026-09-04
- Banners are designed so accepting everything is the easiest way to dismiss them2026-09-04
- Accepting or rejecting cookies requires an extra click the commenter finds pointless2026-09-04
- Cookie dialog freezes page and buttons don't respond while loading on slow connections2026-09-03
- Opt-out is hidden so deeply that users can't find it, forcing acceptance2026-09-01
- Can't figure out where to click to dismiss the popup2026-08-31
- Back button stops working on the website, apparently because of the cookie banner2026-08-31
- Millions of websites each show consent pop-ups instead of one browser setting2026-08-30
- Banner pushes users toward Accept All with passive-aggressive design, making them feel bad for declining2026-08-30
- Designed to exhaust users into clicking consent before they can learn anything2026-08-30
- Cookie banners are deliberately annoying, forcing users through repeated consent hurdles2026-08-29
- Consent pop-ups keep appearing and asking to override default privacy settings despite do-not-track2026-08-29
- Cookie banners add an interstitial barrier users just click past reflexively2026-08-29
- Declined cookie choice is not remembered, so the same prompt reappears on every page load2026-08-29
- Small close X in the corner is confusing next to the giant X2026-08-26
- Must untick hundreds of individual vendor legitimate interest boxes2026-08-25
- Cookie permission window is hard to get past, with legitimate interest settings buried2026-08-25
- Two cookie consent dialogs pop up on the same page2026-08-23
- Only choices are accept all or reject all and subscribe2026-08-22
- Cookie consent modal is covered by an ad, blocking the page2026-08-21