In the modern web, users are confronted with a plethora of complex privacy-related decisions about cookies and consent, often com- pounded by misleading policies and deceptive patterns. Past efforts to enhance online privacy have failed due to their dependence on website compliance. A solution to this lies in privacy-enhancing tools that are directly controlled by the user. However, challenges related to the usability and flawed understanding of the tools’ func- tionality hinder their widespread adoption. To address this problem, we evaluated the browser extension CookieBlock as an example of a current tool, which supports users by blocking tracking cookies independent of website compliance.
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Block Cookies, Not Websites: Analysing Mental Models and Usability of the Privacy-Preserving Browser Extension CookieBlock
The browser extension CookieBlock was evaluated as an example of a current tool, which supports users by blocking tracking cookies independent of website compliance, and revealed flawed mental models of CookieBlock’s functionality and resulting challenges in making the connection between website breakage and cookie misclassification.