Design, content and application of consent banners on plastic surgeon websites: derivation of a typology and discussion of possible implications for data analytics and AI applications

Nowadays, many websites use consent banners to ask their visitors for explicit consent to set cookies on their computers. However, we still know little about how consent banners are used in the healthcare sector. In this study, we empirically address the questions of how consent banners on plastic surgeon websites in Germany are designed and how they are applied. We derive a typology of application patterns and record their quantitative distributions on the plastic surgeon websites. Finally, we evaluate the results and consider possible implications that might arise from systematic biases based on differences in user responses to consent banners in general as well as to possible manipulations to increase opt-in rates in consent banners. Such new biases should be considered in data analytics and AI applications based on cookie data and corrected accordingly.