From Fortune · Mark Penn · · 1m 50s
Five ways to give humanity back its time
Consent banners, 2FA chains, CAPTCHAs and endless terms are burning billions of hours, and none of it needs a technical breakthrough to fix.
In brief
Consent banners, 2FA chains, CAPTCHAs and endless terms are burning billions of hours, and none of it needs a technical breakthrough to fix. The web's biggest time sink is legal defensiveness, not missing technology, and every one of the five worst offenders has a simple fix available today. Originally reported by…
AI promised less drudgery
Years into the AI boom, we are wasting more time than ever on legal clutter clogging the internet. Fixing it needs common sense, not a breakthrough.
“It's easier than ever to save humanity a billion and a half hours”
Lawyers built the gunk
Every company facing a lawsuit or fine reached for the same defensive move: consent banners and agreement paragraphs. Nobody asked for them, and regulations keep piling on more.
“Nobody asked for it. They just appeared on every website, app, and digital interface”
One consent dashboard, not fifteen toggles
Cookie pop-ups now eat whole phone screens with toggle switches and a Confirm button. Set your preferences once per device, apply them everywhere, done.
“Two years ago, you could at least pretend this was a European problem.”
Kill the six-digit codes
Security that once meant one extra step now means a code, an email, and a push notification on a device in another room. Even airport streaming demands 2FA.
“Apple has it right with Passkeys”
Stop proving you are human
CAPTCHAs make you hunt blurry fire hydrants while AI gets better at the puzzles than you are. Extend passkeys to these checks and move on.
“Miss one blurry edge of the fire hydrant in a grey corner? You're not human!”
Registration walls everywhere
Reading one article now means an account, an email verification, a password with arbitrary symbol rules, and a checkbox for newsletters you never wanted. An AI plugin should autofill all of it.
Terms nobody can consent to
Agreements have grown into sprawling constitutional updates you scroll past for every app update. Penn wants plain English summaries and independent ratings from go ahead to don't sign.
“average people really can't possibly give meaningful consent”
Chatbots are next
ChatGPT and Claude stay clean today. One class action away, asking about a sprained ankle could mean sign-ins, terms, data questions and a liability disclaimer first.
“It sounds ridiculous but it is just a few lawyers and one class action case away.”
The one thing
The web's biggest time sink is legal defensiveness, not missing technology, and every one of the five worst offenders has a simple fix available today.
