Bridging the Privacy Gap: Enhanced User Consent Mechanisms on the Web

—In the age of the General Data Protection Regula- tion (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), privacy and consent control have become even more apparent for every-day web users. Privacy banners in all shapes and sizes ask for permission through more or less challenging designs and make privacy control more of a struggle than they help users’ privacy. In this paper, we present a novel solution expanding the Advanced Data Protection Control (ADPC) mechanism to bridge current gaps in user data and privacy control. Our solution moves the consent control to the browser interface to give users a seamless and hassle-free experience, while at the same time offering content providers a way to be legally compliant with legislation. Through an extensive review, we evaluate previous works and identify current gaps in user data control. We then present a blueprint for future implementation and suggest features to support privacy control online for users globally. Given browser support, the solution provides a tangible path to effectively achieve legally compliant privacy and consent control in a user-oriented manner that could allow them to again browse the web seamlessly.