Staying in control of your digital footprint
Cookies and the "reject all" button
What you will be able to do In 5 minutes, you'll know how to reject tracking cookies in a single move, and find your choice again to change it.
As soon as you arrive on a site, a window opens and talks about cookies. A cookie is a small file that the site places in your browser, the program that displays pages. Put another way: a little note left at your place, so the site remembers something. Some of these notes make the site work: your cart, your language, your login. They don't ask for your consent, because without them the service you asked for stops working. Others are used to track you from one site to another, to build a profile and choose which ads to show you. Those, and only those, need your consent. We're going to learn to say no in a single move, on screens we drew ourselves. Nothing here is real: no site actually opens, no cookie is actually placed.
Simulated screen
I practice
This screen was drawn by us. Nothing is sent, nothing is installed, and no real brand is shown.
The situationYou open a recipe website, and a gray window blocks the page before the first line.
The interactive exercise needs JavaScript. The written step by step, just below, says exactly the same thing.
The written step by step
The same steps, in words, to read or print. This sheet works even without the exercise.
What a cookie is
Your turn Tap the sentence that truly says what a cookie is.
A cookie is a small file that the site places in the browser to remember something: your cart, your language, or your visit.
Those that make the site work, those that track
Your turn Tap the group of cookies that tracks you from one site to another.
Tracking and advertising cookies recognize you from one site to another: they, and only they, need your consent.
Finding the reject option in a poorly designed window
Your turn No "Reject all" button appears here. Tap the only path that truly leads to a reject option.
"Customize my choices" is the only path to rejecting in this window. A "Reject all" button should have appeared at the first level.
Reject in a single move
Your turn Tap what rejects all tracking cookies in a single move.
The "Reject all" button does in a single move what the eleven switches would do one by one. That's the one to look for.
Finding your choice again to change it
Your turn Tap where your choice can be found again, later, to change it.
The "Manage my cookies" link, at the bottom of the page, reopens the choice window at any time. That's where you revisit your rejection, or your acceptance.
The sheet to keep
- A cookie is a small file that the site places in the browser to remember something.
- Cookies strictly necessary for the site to work (cart, language, login, security) don't ask for your consent. Rejecting the rest doesn't break the site.
- Tracking and advertising cookies, on the other hand, need your consent, and you have the right to say no.
- Rejecting must be as simple as accepting: a "Reject all" button at the same level and in the same format as "Accept all". The CNIL has issued formal notices to sites that made rejecting less visible or longer.
- Closing the window with a cross doesn't count as a rejection: your silence isn't consent, so you might as well state it clearly.
- In a detailed panel, the switches are often already turned on: saving without touching anything amounts to accepting everything.
- Your choice is kept for about six months, the good practice recommended by the CNIL, and can be changed at any time via the "Manage my cookies" link, at the bottom of the page.
The reflexes in this skill
I stop before I click
Urgency is the sign of a trap. A message that counts down the hours is trying to stop you from thinking. Putting your phone down for two minutes costs nothing, and it is almost always enough.
No one serious ever rushes me
No threats, no countdown, no secret to keep. And asking for help is a reflex, not a failure: saying it out loud to someone makes most scams fall apart.
Two questions to check
Nothing is graded, and nothing is saved anywhere except in your own browser.
A cookie window shows "Accept all" in large letters and "Customize" in small ones, with no reject button. What does the French rule say?
See the answer
Rejecting must be as simple as accepting: a "Reject all" button at the same level as "Accept all"
The CNIL requires that rejecting be possible through an action as simple as accepting. It has issued formal notices to sites where rejecting was less visible, less explicit, or required more moves than accepting.
In a detailed cookie panel, all the switches are already turned on. You tap "Save my choices" without changing anything. What happens?
See the answer
Everything is accepted, since the switches were already turned on
Switches turned on in advance turn a simple save into an acceptance. That's why you look for the "Reject all" button, which does the job in a single move, rather than validating a panel as it stands.
I've done it
Check this box once you can do this skill on your own.
Your progress stays in your own browser.