To comply with data protection regulations such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), websites widely deploy cookie consent banners to collect users’privacy preferences. In practice, however, these interfaces often embed dark patterns that undermine informed and freely given consent. As regulatory scrutiny increases, such patterns have not disappeared but have evolved into subtler and more legally ambiguous forms, making existing detection approaches outdated. We present UMBRA, a consent management platform (CMP)-agnostic system that detects both previously studied patterns (DP1-DP10) and nine newly evolved patterns (DP11-DP19) targeting information disclosure, consent revocation, and legal ambiguity, including pay-to-opt-out schemes, revocation barriers, and fake opt-outs.
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When the Abyss Looks Back: Unveiling Evolving Dark Patterns in Cookie Consent Banners
UBRA is presented, a consent management platform (CMP)-agnostic system that detects both previously studied patterns and nine newly evolved patterns targeting information disclosure, consent revocation, and legal ambiguity, including pay-to-opt-out schemes, revocation barriers, and fake opt-outs.