An entire global industry emerged around answering a single question: "May I collect and use your data?"

Driven by ePrivacy and GDPR and similar legislation around the world, organisations adopted cookie banners and consent tools to demonstrate compliance and give individuals greater control over how their personal information is collected and processed.

In our previous article — “Article 88b: From Cookie Banner Theatre to Portable Privacy Signals” — we explored how the EU’s proposed Article 88b could mark the beginning of the end for endless cookie banners and fragmented consent experiences.

AI Agents are moving faster than governance frameworks can keep up. AI Agents are quickly evolving from assistants into actors. They are already booking appointments, making recommendations, comparing products, generating content, moving information between systems and increasingly making decisions on behalf of individuals and organisations.

For years, the internet has trained people to click “Accept All.” Not because they truly understood or agreed to how their data would be used — but because endless cookie banners, consent pop-ups and fragmented privacy settings made meaningful choice almost impossible.