Cookie banners are easily one of the most annoying parts of browsing the internet, especially when I’m in a hurry to read something. Since I spend a good chunk of my day jumping between websites for research, I’ve developed a terrible habit of clicking “Accept all” just to get those pop-ups out of my way. If there’s a “Reject all” button, I’ll happily use it, but most websites don’t make that choice nearly as convenient.
What bothered me wasn’t just how annoying these banners were, but how often I agreed to tracking I never wanted. So, last week, I decided to try something different. I installed a free browser extension that promised to handle these pop-ups for me, and after a week of using it, I’m wondering why I didn’t do this sooner.
Cookie banners, meet your worst nightmare
I finally found someone to say no for me
The easiest way to get rid of annoying cookie banners is to install an extension that makes them disappear. And if you’ve ever looked for one, you’ve probably come across I Don’t Care About Cookies. It’s popular and, for the most part, does exactly what its name promises. However, there’s a catch. While it generally hides cookie banners, it can also accept a website’s cookie policy when that’s necessary to get the page working.
Now, that might not bother everyone, but it certainly bothered me. After all, I was trying to stop blindly accepting cookies, not find a different way to do the same thing. Avast’s 2022 acquisition of the extension also made me hesitant, especially given the company’s past controversy over selling users’ browsing data through its former Jumpshot subsidiary. That controversy wasn’t connected to this particular extension, but it still made me cautious.
That’s when I came across Consent-O-Matic, and what immediately caught my attention was how differently it approached the problem. Instead of hiding cookie banners, it handles them for you. Think of it as someone patiently going through those annoying cookie settings, turning off the permissions you don’t want, and saving your choices while you get on with whatever you were doing. Interestingly, the extension is also open source, with its code and rules available on GitHub, which gave me a little more confidence to try it.
I installed Consent-O-Matic on my Mac, although it’s also available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. Getting started was surprisingly simple. The extension asked me to choose my preferences across six categories, covering everything from storing information and remembering website preferences to analytics, advertising, and content personalization.
I kept Preferences and Functionality enabled because I still wanted websites to remember useful things, like my preferred language, and switched everything else off. That’s it. I didn’t have to create an account, configure complicated rules, or spend ages figuring out what each website wanted from me.
On supported websites, Consent-O-Matic automatically went through the cookie settings, applied my preferences, and dismissed the banner before I could even think about clicking anything. More importantly, it actually submitted my choices rather than simply hiding the pop-up. There’s even a little checkmark on the extension icon to let me know when it has successfully handled a banner.
And since I jump between websites so often throughout the day, not having to deal with these pop-ups anymore has been a welcome change.
Not every cookie crumbles the same way
But at least I know what I’m signing up for
As much as I’ve enjoyed using Consent-O-Matic over the past week, I wouldn’t call it perfect. It works well on websites that use popular cookie consent platforms, but sporadically you’ll run into a custom-built banner the extension doesn’t recognize. When that happens, you’re back to the old-fashioned way: manually digging through cookie settings to find that elusive reject button.
Fortunately, there’s a way to help improve things. If you come across a website where the extension doesn’t work, you can click its icon and select “Let us know!” to report the problem. You can also disable the extension on individual websites if it causes trouble. According to the developers, reporting a website sends its URL to a server operated by Aarhus University, and the list of reported websites is publicly available. I appreciate that transparency, especially from an extension that’s supposed to help protect my privacy in the first place.
Speaking of privacy, there’s one more thing worth mentioning. When I first installed Consent-O-Matic, it asked for permission to access every website I visit. Now, I’m usually quite careful about the permissions I give browser extensions, so that request immediately caught my attention. However, it makes sense once you understand how the extension works. It needs access to webpages to recognize cookie banners and interact with their settings.
According to the developers, the extension connects to the internet only to download updated rules or when you report a website that isn’t working properly. Your preferences are stored locally in your browser, not uploaded to a remote server. Because the extension is open source, anyone can inspect its code.
That doesn’t automatically guarantee complete privacy, but it’s reassuring to have that level of transparency from something that can access every website I visit.
- OS
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Chrome, Firefox, Safari
- Developer
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CAVI, Aarhus University
- Price model
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Free
Consent-O-Matic is a browser extension that groups cookie pop-ups into five categories. It allows users to use the open-source software and customize the interaction themselves.
The only cookies I’m accepting now are edible
Consent-O-Matic might be a small extension, but it makes browsing much less annoying. Sure, the occasional cookie banner still slips through, but I’d rather deal with those myself than go back to blindly accepting everything. If you’re tired of constantly dismissing pop-ups, it’s absolutely worth trying. After all, saying no to tracking shouldn’t be harder than saying yes.