Exploring the Enforcement of Cookie Notices across Continents: An Empirical Study

Regulatory frameworks, such as GDPR in Europe, CCPA in the United States, and LGPD in Brazil have made cookie notices a standard feature on the web. Websites display notices and sometimes seek user consent for their use of cookies and tracking technologies. However, the visibility and impact of these notices can vary based on the user’s geographical location. In our study, we introduce a novel automated visual detection technique to explore the enforcement of cookie notices. This methodology outperforms previous techniques that depend on manual observations or inspection of HTML/CSS elements. Our analysis of 70,390 web pages visited across five countries on different continents reveals geographical disparities in cookie notice visibility, with France exhibiting the highest prevalence at (69%) and Japan the lowest at (27%). This variation in visibility correlates with the state of cookies and tracking. In further examination of interaction with cookie notices, we analyze 351,950 web pages and find that third-party cookies increase when users interact with the notices, notably in the US. Conversely, France, with its stringent regulations, maintains the lowest number of third-party cookies. Tracking trends closely follow these patterns, highlighting a correlation between the visibility of cookie notices and user tracking. That correlation highlights the need for accurate detection of cookie notices in this domain, as we propose.