Well, isn’t this the cutest little kitty, pspspspsps.. (clears his throat)… um, so
this is the website CuteCatPics.com.
This website has an amazing collection of cute cat pictures that thousands of users
enjoy day after day. This makes the owner of the website, Olaf, very happy.
However, it costs Olaf a lot of time to maintain the website and to constantly find new cat content.
Olaf: "Come here, Kittie Kittie"
Olaf has a problem: he can't make money with his website.
Greasy-haired salesman: "Hey Olaf, haven’t I just the thing for you! You just put this
code on your site, so we can show your users ads that might interest them and you get a
cut of what the advertised companies pay us. Easy right? Also it is very legal and very cool!"
Greasy-haired salesman: "It's a win-win situation!"
As soon as Olaf has added the code for the advertisement to his page, something strange
happens – the website distributes cookies.
Users: "Hmmm, cookies!"
But what’s happening?! The users don't seem to notice that something is wrong with these
cookies. They are special tracking cookies!
These cookies track what users search for, what websites they visit and how long they stay there!
Can it possibly be legal to give out cookies that make users reveal so much of their habits without
them realizing?
Justicia: "What's going on here?! That's not how it works!"
Olaf: Huh?
Greasy-haired salesman: "Bleh, what does she want here now?"
Justicia: "It doesn’t work like that, you need users’ consent to track them!"
Lady Justicia's intervention seems to have changed things. Now, when someone accesses the website
... well, this happens. This cookie consent banner can be quite annoying for someone who just
wants their daily dose of cat pictures.
The ad industry designed these new privacy notices in a way that they are very hard to read
and that they always pop up at the worst possible moment.
Greasy-haired salesman: "Gotcha. Hahahahaha."
The ad industry intentionally entices users to take the easiest route, which is of course
the one that benefits the industry the most. In doing so, our very likable salesman here can say
he has the informed consent of users. His main concern, however, is to keep the cash
flowing into his pockets.
But let's imagine that a user learns how much of his data is really being tracked by the ad
industry.
That’s not nice.
The users vow to pay better attention to those damn cookie banners next time!
And so the poor saps click their way through countless choices. What exactly they are clicking
isn't very obvious to them.
And so everyone lived happily ever after until... Crap, wrong text. Ah, here... (pause) (clearing
throat) The ad Industry is not happy about this development at all.
Which is why our ad salesman - like a lot of his colleagues - just ignores the users' decision and keeps on tracking their data anyway.
Greasy-haired salesman: "Hahahahaha"