[matthewmacleod]

now GDPR forces even more meaningless popups

But it doesn't.

GDPR forces companies who are collecting user data to obtain explicit consent for that collection. The fact that companies decided to make your user experience shittier instead of fixing their approach to data collection is the problem there.

[Isinlor]

The problem is that people don't care, but governments are trying to force them to care. People don't care, because they don't bother to look for other websites without cookies, so companies don't care either.

If you enforce rule on two parties minding their own business, you encourage changing this rule in some type of mindless ritual. Ok, we will do what you say in the letter of the law, but we won't try to follow the spirit because no one cares.

And this is exactly what is happening with cookies. Companies don't want legal risks(GDPR or not), consumers don't care, voilà! Mindless cookie banners, stupidly long and expansive Terms of Service, etc.

[lambdadmitry]

That's a very bad argument. Sure, people may not care enough now, but that's just because the threat is new and poorly understood. There was a time where people didn't care about getting lung cancer from smoking, but then it changed.