This is a common experience as publishers try to remain compliant with new privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, yet they still do not want to give up all the goodness that cookies bring to them. This sequence of three pop-up panels shows how the publisher, Future tries to keep me opted-in to their cookies.
The first thing we need to remember is that I clicked to the Live Science site to see something that interested me, so I want to read the actual article, not the next in the privacy consent pop-ups. Which means that users will likely blow past the next without reading it. Instead, just clicking on buttons to get back to the article as fast as possible.
- Panel 1: The unmissable big blue button says ‘I ACCEPT’. There is a smaller ‘Show Purposes’ link. And the FUTURE logo that is there to distract my attention from the Show Purposes link.
- Panel 2: Here is my chance to opt in or out of the various cookies. The checkboxes look like I should check them individually, but the confirmation is either “Accept all and continue” as a prominent button or “Reject all” in diminutive text. Again distracted by the FUTURE logo.
- Panel 3: I’ve managed to get this far without consenting, so now the present two confusing options. “Go Back” which takes me back to the previous consent screen and “Leave” which actually takes me to the article, although it suggests I am going to leave the site without seeing the article.
So wow, that was painful and I go through this every time because I do want to opt-out. It now takes 2.5 minutes to read a 2 minute article. So given our digital grazing behavior, how many people are not actually opting out?