stop cookies being sent / session start for site?

[Joe]

Hi,

This is related to my post http://processwire.com/talk/topic/4747-http-response-header-partly-added-by-processwire/ - However I´ve decided to separate this question from the headers issue I am asking about there.

What I want to know: for a simple presentation site without user interaction, how do I set it so no session is started / no cookies are sent when a visitor looks at a site (public pages)?

Because apparently this happens automatically and for a basic site I would think this is only needed when editing the site. I´ve been trying to change /site/config.php but so far no luck. Searched for "sessions" here but couldn´t really find an answer.

Thanks

[ryan]

There isn't a way to turn it off, as it would render PW's $session variable useless, and break anything that used $session. Though if using ProCache, it bypasses ProcessWire and sessions, on any cached pages. 

[Joe]

Thank you Ryan!

It´s just that a cookie being sent automatically might pose a legal problem depending on local legislation. I am no expert on this, but I understand in the European Union there is a general cookie-guideline and different ways this guideline is handled in different countries. It amounts to having to give visitors an opt-out or opt-in option (depending on local legislation) to expressly allow or disallow a website to set cookies.

I am not sure if this rule really applies to session cookies. Still trying to find out more. But if it were so, then there might be a problem if cookies cannot be disabled.

P.S.: Looked some more: the laws seem a bit fuzzy to me. Probably session cookies are not a problem here, but not completely sure. It would be good to find out definitely (and maybe still come up with a way of not sending them for sites that don´t use $session).

Edited October 21, 2013 by Joe