Accept All: The Landscape of Cookie Banners in Greece and the UK

TL;DR

This large-scale study compares cookie banner compliance and user privacy options on over 17,000 websites in Greece and the UK, revealing significant non-compliance and privacy-intrusive practices.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive large-scale analysis of cookie banners in Greece and the UK, highlighting compliance gaps and user privacy issues.

Findings

Over 60% of websites store third-party cookies.

Less than 50% display a cookie notice.

Most websites lack straightforward opt-out options.

Abstract

Cookie banners are devices implemented by websites to allow users to manage their privacy settings with respect to the use of cookies. They are part of a user's daily web browsing experience since legislation in Europe requires websites to show such notices. In this paper, we carry out a large-scale study of more than 17,000 websites including more than 7,500 cookie banners in Greece and the UK to determine compliance and tracking transparency levels. Our analysis shows that although more than 60% of websites store third-party cookies in both countries, only less than 50% show a cookie notice and hence a substantial proportion do not comply with the law even at the very basic level. We find only a small proportion of the surveyed websites providing a direct opt-out option, with an overwhelming majority either nudging users towards privacy-intrusive choices or making cookie rejection much harder than consent. Our results differ significantly in some cases from previous smaller-scale studies and hence underline the importance of large-scale studies for a better understanding of the big picture in cookie practices.