In the CTSi White Paper Series, CTSi researchers condense their scientific work for a wider readership: what was studied, what came out of it, and what follows from it. Each paper is numbered and citable, and usually appears in both German and English.
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Consent Cannot Be Delegated
Findings on cookie banners, the GDPR and the role of AI in consent
Cookie banners and privacy labels rarely lead to informed decisions. In a study with 136 valid responses, the options a banner offered were the only factor that significantly changed what people chose; website type, prior knowledge and age made no measurable difference. The paper explains why letting an AI system decide instead does not count as consent under the GDPR, and proposes a single consent window in the browser, with AI explaining the choice rather than making it.
