Informed consent is a control principle that requires people to understand what data is being collected, why it is collected, how long it will be kept, and who may use it before they agree to it. In cyber security, consent is not just a legal checkbox: it is part of data governance and trust.
It matters because systems that collect data without clear consent can increase privacy exposure, weaken user trust, and create compliance risk. In practice, informed consent is used in privacy notices, permission prompts, sensor-enabled services, and access policies that limit collection to a stated purpose. Defenders also use it to reduce abuse: if a platform cannot explain or justify its data flows, that is often a sign of excessive collection, poor retention controls, or a larger attack surface. In networked systems such as 6G and ISAC, informed consent becomes especially important because sensing features may gather more than traffic data.