Users of online services often encounter cookie banners that ask them to consent to different categories of cookies. Frequently, these categories are labelled using the four categories defined by the 2012 Cookie Guide from the UK’s International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). However, prior research suggests that users have difficulty understanding what these category labels actually mean. We conducted a four-part study to identify labels that more intuitively convey the four cookie categories. First, we crowd sourced new category labels. We then evaluated users’ comprehension and sentiment towards the labels in a series of surveys focused on definitions and hypothetical scenarios.
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Crumbling Cookie Categories: Deconstructing Common Cookie Categories to Create Categories that People Understand
A four-part study identifies labels that more intuitively convey the four cookie categories and recommends that the industry adopt the category label ’’anonymous analytics cookies” in lieu of the term ’’performance cookies” and ’’extra functionality cookies” instead of ’’functional cookies.