This AI devours 91% of unwanted cookies

Researchers in the United States have decided to tackle the ubiquitous pop-ups and banners on the web that ask for permission for cookies. Using Artificial Intelligence, CookieEnforcer is able to automatically refuse non-essential cookies on 91% of sites.

With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the European Union placed the privacy of these citizens at the center of concerns. However, this has led to the current situation where sites constantly ask for your consent for Cookies and the format changes from site to site.

Annoyed by these pop-ups, Internet users have learned to click without reading, most often to accept cookies since it is the most apparent button. However, thanks to researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Google, a solution is on the horizon. Their system, called CookieEnforcer, will automatically refuse unwanted cookies.

An AI soon as a browser extension

The researchers trained an artificial intelligence to navigate the source code web pages and to locate notifications related to cookies. She then makes a semantic analysis text and different options to disable non-essential ones by simulating mouse clicks. The system is thus able to operate on sites and with notification systems that it has not yet encountered.

The researchers then tested CookieEnforcer on 500 new sites. AI successfully disabled non-essential cookies on 91% of sites. The system is not yet available to the public, but researchers may release it in the future as a simple browser extension.