What is it about?
When you visit a website, a pop-up often asks you to accept "cookies" — files that track your online activity. South African law (POPIA) requires websites to obtain informed consent, yet these notices are supposed to help you make a genuine choice and most are confusing. We examined the 100 most popular South African websites and found that most cookie notices communicate poorly. We then designed a better notice, using labelled icons to show what data is collected and why, and tested it with over 600 people across three rounds. Our design helped people feel better informed, though one fact — that websites share data with other companies — remained widely misunderstood regardless of design.
Featured Image
Photo by Kaja Sariwating on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Many websites ask you to accept cookies, but the pop-ups are often hard to understand. This study made a clearer one. It is free to use, and website owners can copy its ideas. It also shows that the words in the notice matter, not just the pictures.
Perspectives
For me it is important to create research that has very practical value. I hope that people find it easy to use the cookie consent notice I made, and also understand why cookie banners are currently bad.
Jurgen Geitner
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Beyond compliance: improving cookie consent notice comprehension and usability through design science research, Information and Computer Security, October 2026, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/ics-06-2026-0349.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
