Why cookie banners keep coming back (and how to make them stop)

2 min read

You click "Reject all". The next day, the banner's back.

The site isn't ignoring you. It just can't find the answer you already gave.

The same news article with the cookie banner, overlay and scroll lock removed, saved by Cuttlefox for the whole site
A news article covered by a cookie consent banner and a dark overlay, with a request to remove them typed into Cuttlefox
Drag to compare. The banner, the dark overlay and the scroll lock, gone on every visit.

Why it keeps coming back

Your choice is saved in a cookie. No cookie, no memory, so the site asks again. The usual reasons:

  • Chrome clears cookies when you close it. A privacy setting does this, and it wipes your answer too.
  • You're in an Incognito window. Everything is forgotten when it closes.
  • A cleaner app or privacy extension is deleting cookies.
  • The site has a bug. It saves your choice on www.example.com but you land on example.com, for example. Banner providers list this as a common setup mistake.

Quick test: try the site in another browser. If the banner comes back there too, it's the site, not you.

How to make it stop

Fix your settings

Upside: Let the sites you visit often keep their cookies. Fixes the cause.

Downside: Only helps if your settings were the problem.

A cookie-banner extension

Upside: “I still don’t care about cookies” and ad-blocker annoyance lists hide banners on many sites.

Downside: They miss custom banners, and can leave a page frozen.

Cuttlefox

Upside: Removes the banner, the overlay and the scroll lock on any site you pick.

Downside: One site at a time. $2.50/month after a 7-day free trial.

With Cuttlefox, open the panel on the stubborn site and type:

Prompt

Remove the cookie banner and the dark overlay, and let the page scroll again.

The scroll part matters. Many banners freeze the page while they're open, so hiding only the banner leaves you stuck.

One caveat

Hiding a banner isn't the same as answering it. The site acts as if you never chose. If tracking worries you, block third-party cookies in Chrome's settings, and save hiding for the sites that won't remember your answer.