Consent is meant to empower users by giving them a choice regarding the use of their personal data. Thus, organisations have the incentive to provide benefits, whether directly or indirectly, in return for consent. However, recent research has demonstrated the scale and scope of malpractices regarding consent on the web, where users are misled and coerced into giving away their personal data and privacy. In light of this, we call for investigating what benefits, if any, are specified in the context of consent; who benefits from it; and whether they can be observed in reality. We hope our work outlines the need to formally investigate the claims made when requesting consent and empowers users through greater transparency regarding benefits to make better-informed choices.

This work is partially supported by the Internet Foundation Austria (IPA) within the NetIdee call (RESPECTeD Project; Grant#prj4625). Harshvardhan J. Pandit is funded by the Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship under Grant#GOIPD/2020/790; European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under NGI TRUST Grant#825618 for Project#3.40 Privacy-as-Expected: Consent Gateway; and as part of the ADAPT SFI Centre for Digital Media Technology which is funded by Science Foun- dation Ireland through the SFI Research Centres Programme and is co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through Grant#13/RC/2106 P2.