What is Pre-Checked Consent?
Cookie and privacy forms often arrive with non-essential tracking boxes already ticked, so doing nothing quietly opts you in.
Where it comes from
Cookie Banner UX (2010s)
How it hooks you
Exploits status quo bias: people tend to read defaults as recommendations and rarely change them, even against their own interests.
What the research shows
EU regulators have ruled that pre-ticked boxes are not valid consent, yet audits keep finding them in live cookie banners.
How to resist it
Untick every non-essential box, use 'Reject All' where available, and run a browser that blocks trackers by default.