[gingerlime]

I honestly can’t figure out how these popups became so prevalent. They’re so obviously not compliant not just with the fine print of GDPR but with its spirit.

Even if you’re completely cynical about being compliant with GDPR I would imagine that not having popups like that at all is more compliant or less likely to get you in trouble than having those flagrantly-non-compliant ones...

[TheCoelacanth]

It basically the "I don't have to be faster than the bear, I just have to be faster than you" principle in action.

GDPR violations are so ubiquitous that regulators can't possibly go after all of them.

As long as you aren't a particularly juicy target and are doing the same things that everyone else is to pretend to follow GDPR, you probably aren't going to be among the first enforcement targets.

[kd5bjo]

There's also some cargo-cult legal reasoning going on as well, I think: instead of paying a lawyer to read the new law and tell you what you actually need to do, simply do whatever you see everyone else doing and assume it's fine.

[gingerlime]

But not doing anything visible might actually be better than pretty much advertising that you're not compliant. It might be easy to catch a bunch of sites using a 3rd party "compliance solution" popup banner in one big swoop.