Over 70% of websites share your personal data – even if you don’t consent

More than 7 out of 10 of the most visited websites share your personal data with third parties – even when you explicitly withdraw your consent.

This is the worrying finding from the 2024 State of Website Privacy Report by privacy solution provider Privado.ai. After looking at the 100 most visited websites in the US and Europe, experts found that around 75% aren’t compliant with current privacy regulations enforced across the regions.

These alarming low rates of non-compliance show how privacy laws alone aren’t enough to protect your privacy. Using one of the best VPN apps and other privacy software remains the best bet you have to take back agency over your data.

Most US and European websites are at risk of privacy violations

Experts scanned the 100 most visited websites in the US and Europe in September 2024 to verify consent compliance with the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) respectively. To do so, they used Privado.ai’s automated consent monitoring technology.

The team was especially surprised to see that 74% of European websites analyzed didn’t honor opt-in consent as required by GDPR. US websites rank for a very similar rate of non-compliance, with 76% not respecting opt-out consent as required by CPRA. For both regions, experts note, the majority (99%) of non-compliance “was due to data sharing with advertising third parties without proper consent via a network request.”

Despite these similar results, as the graph below shows, US websites are three times more at risk of breaching privacy laws than those in Europe. Roughly half of the websites in the report were media publications, alongside e-commerce, lifestyle,…