The fatigued consent — a user perspective on the usability of cookie notices : A studie of what factors influence the perception, experience, and final decisions through a cookie notifications

This thesis aims to investigate the effectiveness and significance of cookie notifications for users from a consent perspective. Specifically, the study seeks to answer the following research questions: 1) What types of cookie notifications can be identified on websites? 2) What factors influence the perception, experience, and final decision of tech-savvy users when it comes to cookie notifications? The implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018 has required websites to inform users about the collection, processing, and use of personal data, as well as request their consent. One way to achieve this is through cookie notifications. However, the impact and factors influencing users' interaction with cookie notifications are still unclear. Therefore, this qualitative study analyzes a sample of cookie notifications through user interviews and think-aloud testing to explore factors affecting users' perceptions and decisions regarding consent. The results of our study indicate that consent fatigue is the most decisive factor in a user's choice of cookies. The large number of daily requests that users must face leads to users not caring about making privacy choices. Although fear of missing out and nudging also affect a user, it is cookie notifications with extensive text that induce consent fatigue. Our conclusion is that if cookie notifications are still to exist, they should be even more private by default and that options like "accept all" should require more active choices by the user and not the other way around. The results will help enhance the transparency and user-friendliness of cookie notifications while balancing privacy protection and user experience