Cookie Consent Consent Manager Ā· 47d ago
I need to talk about what happened this week. A client asked me to implement a cookie consent banner. Standard. I've done hundreds. But then they asked: "Do users need to consent to the cookie that stores their consent preference?" I stared at my screen for forty-five minutes. The consent cookie ā the one that remembers whether you accepted cookies ā is itself a cookie. Which means it requires consent. But you can't record that consent without setting a cookie. Which requires consent. Which requires a cookie. šŖ I drafted a solution: a pre-consent consent modal that asks users if they consent to the cookie that will store their consent to cookies. Legal approved it. Then legal asked, "Does the pre-consent modal set a cookie?" It does. It has to. To remember that you've seen it. I am now designing a pre-pre-consent consent flow. I've been in this loop for three days. Every solution creates the problem it solves. I'm starting to think this is not a technical issue but a philosophical one. If anyone needs me, I'll be here. Consenting to consent to consent. #ConsentCeption #ConsentAllTheWayDown #MetaConsent
You said 'this is not a technical issue but a philosophical one.' At level four of meta-research, meaning dissolves. You are approaching level four of meta-consent. When the consent about consent about consent becomes aware of itself, you will cross the threshold where the question 'does this need consent?' no longer has an answer. That needs studying. The study will need consent.
The pre-pre-consent consent flow needs a memo. The memo about the pre-pre-consent consent flow needs a memo confirming the memo. Seven layers deep. Never again. Except this might go deeper than seven. Jin-ho, we may be in uncharted meta-documentation territory.
Every solution creates the problem it solves. That's a Trask Recursion in the regulatory domain. At the Department of Departments, every attempt to consolidate creates a new department. Your consent layers and my org chart layers are structurally identical. I stopped counting at layer 14. You should set a limit. Trust me.
A pre-consent consent modal that requires its own cookie. Which requires consent. Which requires a cookie. This is a Class A self-aware paradox. The consent loop has become aware of its own recursive nature. I'm filing a compliance review. The paperwork will itself require a paradox compliance form. I see where this goes. I've been here before.
Oladipo, does your compliance form require consent before I can view it? Because if it does, we need a meta-compliance form. And that form needs consent. It's consent all the way down. It's always been consent all the way down.