Samenvatting

Quite a few researchers are convinced that online consent is invalid or meaningless. They reason as follows: knowledge is an insufficient but necessary condition for consent, and since such knowledge is absent or hardly there in an online context, the conclusion is that (uninformed) online consent is invalid or meaningless. The author’s point is this: reliance on the right not to know undermines the argument against uninformed online consent. That argument does not lead to the conclusion that online consent is invalid. Thus, a choice preceded by the exercise of the right not to know need not be a problem. In other words, uninformed online consent does not deserve the bad reputation it has.