[ceejayoz]

A more accurate version:

Law: You have to get some form of affirmative consent if you want to do specific often-abused things.

Companies: We'll do it in the most obnoxious way possible ("here are our 853 technology partners... no, there's not a 'deselect all' option, have fun clicking") so people blame the law instead of the industry that didn't want to allow consent at all.

[morsch]

There's always a deselect all option (or rather, the equivalent "accept only the technically required ones"), because it's required by law. Sometimes the operator tries to hide the option. That, too, is illegal.

[ceejayoz]

There is frequently not a "deselect all" option; there's a reason regulators keep having to warn about it.

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs...

[LaGrange]

I so wish that "our 1234 trusted partners" was an exaggeration.