I Dont Care About Cookies vs Cookie Auto-Reject: Which Blocks More

Both extensions get rid of cookie banners, but they do it in opposite ways. I Don't Care About Cookies hides banners and, where a site needs an answer, accepts cookies to make it work. Cookie Auto-Reject clicks the "reject" button. Disclosure: Cookie Auto-Reject is made by Bushe.co.

I Don't Care About Cookies

• Built to make banners disappear on as many sites as possible.
• Hides banners with page rules, and on sites that won't work until you answer, it accepts.
• Covers a very large number of sites, because accepting or hiding works almost everywhere.
• It was bought by the antivirus company Avast in 2022, which led some users to switch to I Still Don't Care About Cookies, an open-source community fork that works the same way.

The catch: when it accepts, sites may set tracking and advertising cookies. A hidden banner may also leave the site's default in place, which on some sites is tracking.

Cookie Auto-Reject

• Cookie Auto-Reject looks for consent banners from the common consent platforms (such as OneTrust, Cookiebot and TrustArc), as well as reject buttons by their wording, and clicks reject.
• It never clicks accept, so sites only get consent for the cookies they need to work.
• A counter in the toolbar shows how many banners it has rejected, with a list of recent sites.

The trade-off: rejecting needs a reject button to click. Banners with no reject option, or unusual custom designs, may still appear, and cookie walls that demand acceptance can't be rejected at all. See cookie walls explained.

Which "blocks more"?

• Fewer banners on screen: I Don't Care About Cookies, because accepting and hiding work on more sites.
• Fewer tracking cookies: Cookie Auto-Reject, because a rejection is a real "no" that sites are required to respect in places like the EU and UK.

Other options

• Consent-O-Matic, from researchers at Aarhus University, also answers banners with your chosen preferences, typically rejecting.
• Ghostery has a "Never-Consent" feature that rejects banners.
• Ad blockers with annoyance lists hide banners, with the same caveat as hiding above.

Combine with cookie settings

Whatever you use, block third-party cookies in Chrome's settings. That stops most cross-site tracking cookies even on sites where a banner slips through. See what happens when you click Reject all.