‘Pay or Okay’ study: Users prefer a tracking-free “third option”

Cookie Banners So-called ‘Pay or Okay’ systems are on the rise in Europe.

Monitoring Consent Cookies Social Media Law Enforcement

Dec 4, 2025Sourcenoyb.eu

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Cookie Banners So-called ‘Pay or Okay’ systems are on the rise in Europe. Instead of giving users a choice to either accept or reject ad tracking, Pay or Okay systems require a payment if you want to refuse to give your “consent”. This nudges 99.9% of users to consent, even if they actually don’t want to do so. Given the upcoming guidelines by the European Data Protection Board on this highly controversial approach, noyb has commissioned a study about user choices. Download the user study on Pay or OkayPay or okay FAQsBackground. Having to pay a fee or agree to being tracked for targeted advertising is a choice that many online users have to make these days. Over the last few years, news media websites, Facebook, Instagram and many others have started to use such a Pay or Okay system to increase their consent rates up to 99.9%. By aggressively pushing users towards ‘consent’, they expect to earn a bit more money than they would with an ordinary cookie banner. This led to a heated discu

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