Since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in 2018, cookie banners have become ubiquitous. For many users, interacting with cookie banners remains an annoyance, while some operators deliberately make it more difficult for users to reject optional cookies. Existing studies have examined various factors that influence how users interact with cookie banners, such as framing, default options, and dark patterns. Building on this work, we conducted an online vignette study using four realistic website mock-ups to investigate how cookie familiarity, website type, and the presentation of options affect users’ decisions. Our findings show that the set of options available in a cookie banner is the most significant factor that affects user decisions, more so than website type or familiarity with cookies. We recommend standardizing both the options and their placement to enable user consent to be more informed and intuitive.

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Do Cookies Taste Different? The Impact of Options and Website Type When Setting Cookie Preferences

  • Rafael Vrecar,
  • Barbara Geld,
  • Anna Dobrosovestnova,
  • Michaela Gaea Čolakovová,
  • Astrid Weiss

摘要

Since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in 2018, cookie banners have become ubiquitous. For many users, interacting with cookie banners remains an annoyance, while some operators deliberately make it more difficult for users to reject optional cookies. Existing studies have examined various factors that influence how users interact with cookie banners, such as framing, default options, and dark patterns. Building on this work, we conducted an online vignette study using four realistic website mock-ups to investigate how cookie familiarity, website type, and the presentation of options affect users’ decisions. Our findings show that the set of options available in a cookie banner is the most significant factor that affects user decisions, more so than website type or familiarity with cookies. We recommend standardizing both the options and their placement to enable user consent to be more informed and intuitive.