Lesson 3
Reading the Cookie Banner
Learn what UK law makes the cookie banner ask, what pressing Reject all stops, and what it was never meant to reach.
Why the banner is there
It’s 7 am, you open a news site on your phone, and half the screen is a banner: Accept all, Reject all, Manage options. It’s there because of UK law. The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) say a site must ask before it stores anything on your device, or reads anything from it, unless that is strictly necessary for what you asked for. Remembering your basket, keeping you signed in and security checks are strictly necessary. The tracker’s card isn’t.
So the banner is the shop asking before the stranger stamps your loyalty card. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which enforces these rules, explains them in its guidance, last updated on 29 April 2026 and checked on 17 October 2026. Changes made by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 added a few low-risk exceptions, which this lesson comes to, but advertising isn’t one of them. In the ICO’s words, “online advertising purposes are not exempt from PECR’s consent requirements and never have been”.
These are UK rules. Banners elsewhere follow their own countries’ laws.