"Uh, we do?"
"Yeah, for sure. Otherwise they won't know."
"Ok so like... maybe we should make them read about it when they first come to our site?"
"Yeah, but it has to be somewhere really visible, like in front of our logo."
"But then we should let people close it once they've seen it."
"Yeah we don't want to make them feel like they have no control."
"Do you think there's anything wrong with it being the first thing people read?"
"Well there's no way to find out how people will react, and we're already spending too much time debating it, so let's just say 'whatever.'"
And the result:
It's like when you're trying to just buy some batteries or something and the cashier wants to know your postal code. After about a decade of issuing warnings like these, web designers mostly gave up on them, assuming that users had gotten the memo and understood what cookies were all about. But users never did get the memo, because it's not important enough of an issue for them to warrant that they learn about the technicalities behind their browser's relationship with the site and with them.
