Brave's Cookiecrumbler tool taps community to help block cookie notices

Brave has open-sourceed a new tool called "Cookiecrumbler," which uses large language models (LLMs) to detect cookie consent notices and then community-driven reviews to block those that won't break site functionality. The Brave browser has been blocking cookie consent banners by default on all websites since 2022 but found that blocking consent banners may cause website problems that severely disrupt and degrade the site's usability. "Overly broad or incorrect blocking can break essential website functionality, from checkout flows to layout problems," explains Brave. "We've encountered many issues (broken scrolling, blank pages) when a cookie consent notice block is applied indiscriminately." Cookiecrumbler uses AI to find websites utilizing consent management platforms (CMPs) and report them as issues in its GitHub Project. Cookiecrumbler's suggestions are then reviewed manually before applying to avoid breaking essential site functionality. The way the tool works is summarized ... Read full article.