There is no decision: design of cookie consent banner and its effect on user consent

After the European Union introduced the General Data Protection Regulation and Directive 2009/136/EC websites have been obligated to ask their European users consent before placing cookies on their device. As an adverse side effect his has led to a situation in which most websites now feature a cookie banner. Constant consent request have led to a phenomenon called “cookie fatigue” where website visitors no longer take the time to understand what they are consenting to due to the high number of consent requests. The study explores how humans make decisions when facing a cookie banner and if the decision is made in such a way that the consent can be considered valid. The work is divided to three stages. First, fifty Finnish websites were visited to gather information about what kind of cookie banners are commonly in place. The second stage describes how a test website and a cookie banner with variable button colors, button layout and text options was created utilizing the information collected in stage one. Finally, the third stage consists of a user study where this test website was combined with a questionnaire in an attempt to determine if and how these options affect consent rates. After this, an attempt was made to explain any observed effects. Based on the results of this thesis a significant number of people do not seem to pay much, if any, attention to what they are consenting to when facing a cookie banner. The color scheme of the buttons to accept or reject cookies was found to be more significant than even drastic changes in the amount of information collected using cookies. Also, the overwhelming majority of people who accepted cookies stated that they would not do so if it was possible for them to reject non-essential cookies using browser settings. This might signify that people have been conditioned to accept cookies, as nothing else that was discovered can fully explain this contradictory behavior. The location of the buttons was found to have no effect. Finally, the thesis makes suggestions to policy makers to alleviate the issues and prevent them from resurfacing again in a different form