alt Hacker NewsYou don't need cookies for basic aggregated analytics. Now if you want to track and record mouse movement, you do, and that's a privacy concern.
The law really has nothing to do with cookies, it has to do with privacy, tracking, and PII. You can absolutely save preferences and perform analytics. What you can't do is hoard data that is personally identifiable for purposes that are not obvious to the consumer.
Actually you can't send any cookie that is not essential to the operation of the website without consent and that would include analytics regardless of PII. same for pixel tracking / fingerprinting, it's all a no-no.