Applications of algorithmically informed decisions are becoming entrenched in society, with data processing being their main process and ingredient. While these applications are progressively gaining momentum, established data protection and privacy rules have struggled to incorporate the particularities of data-intensive information societies. Consequently, there is a misalignment created between algorithmic processing of personal data and the corresponding regulatory frameworks since they both strive for meaningful control over personal data.However, the challenges to the traditional role and the concept of consent are particularly manifest. This article examines the transformation of consent in order to assess how the concept in itself as well as the applied models of consent can be reconciled to correspond not only to current data protection normative frameworks but also to algorithmic processing technologies. This particularly pressing area of safeguarding a fundamental aspect of individual control over personal data in the algorithmic era is interlinked with practical implementations of consent in the technology used. Moreover, it relates to adopted interpretations of the concept of consent, to the scope of application of personal data, as well as to the obligations enshrined in them. What makes consent efficient as a data protection tool? Can its previous glory be maintained within the current techno-legal challenges?