"Stay out of my way!": the impact of cookie consent notice design on young users' decision

Official URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35822-7_34

Websites use Cookies to store the information and preferences of users and may collect this information for different purposes such as session continuity, customized experience for users, and a data source for the advertisement strategies of third parties. As the subject of data and user security becomes essential, the collection of these cookies without the consent of the users and the fact that they are not informed of the cookie collection has become a concern. Cookie consent notices have emerged to address this problem and to make users aware of the cookies. The main objective of this study is to understand how users respond to different cookie consent designs and whether the designs affect giving consent. Participants were asked to fulfill the tasks that include an item search from four different websites. However, while doing this, the main observation was how the participants reacted to the consent notice on these websites. The results of the study show that the acceptance rate of cookies is 100% for consent notices that occupy the middle of the page and prevent further action. In addition, the presence of a reject button or option for editing the preferences does not affect the consent rate considerably. Also, the detailedness or length of the text in the notice has no effect and all the participants declared that they did not read it. 90% of the participants said they accepted or closed it just to continue their task and remove the consent notice from the interface.