NEWS
An increasing number of people are blocking cookies or deleting them to protect their privacy or security, according to a new Jupiter Research study.
Nearly 58 per cent of online users deleted the small files, which are deposited on computers to track website habits, the research firm's 2004 survey found. As many as 39 per cent may be deleting cookies from their primary computer every month, according to the study, released on Monday.
The market researcher attributes the trend to heightened concern over privacy and security issues among internet users. Many people are using anti-spyware and firewall applications, it said.
"Many of these applications block third-party cookies by default, and many more will regularly delete cookies from consumers' computers," the report stated.
According to a consumer survey quoted by Jupiter Research, 38 per cent said they consider cookies invasive of their security and privacy. Lawmakers and consumer lobbies have been considering the impact of cookies, and network security company Netcraft on Monday pointed out the risks to personal information posed by the theft of cookies by attackers using cross-scripting flaws.
For online businesses, the trend means that cookies may not be an accurate method of tracking regular visitors to their websites. If users block cookies, accurate measurement is compromised and higher numbers may be categorised as anonymous, the study said.
Analyst Eric Peterson said in a statement: "Given the number of sites and applications that depend heavily on cookies for accuracy and functionality, the lack of this data represents [a] significant risk for many companies. Because personalisation, tracking and targeting solutions require cookies to identify web visitors over multiple sessions, the accuracy of these solutions has become highly suspect, especially over longer periods of time."
Dinesh C. Sharma writes for CNET News.com.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. Alleged Cybersquatter
If you need to track a user then what is the harm of using a login function and using a sessionID in the URL?
These companies are upset because of their cookies are being ignore, well perhaps if you dont set your cookie to expire 50 years from now, we would not be concerned about privacy so much, all cookies should have a life span of a clients session, then their would be no need to block them.
2. Nick Cole
Cookies are NOT required. They are however used because people like Bill Gates incorporate them in their operating systems. They are an officially sanctioned loophole through security and privacy. This built in remote control capability is at the heart of almost all security flaws.
It is hardly surprising that web site operators use cookies since it removes considerable resource overheads on their servers and a more complex database. But that doesn't make them mandatory.
If they were more open about what was being captured and let people see what was going on then users would be able to make a more informed choice.
Sites that use them for basket tracking and other e-commerce purposes have a higher degree of justification, though since these usually require some form of account log-in anyway their use is probably not justified.
Cookies are not needed to count visitors, the fact that a connection has been made does that already. What they are after is recording what is looked at and where and also capturing other information, but again that can be done by monitoring the website itself rather than by a cookie, and more openness on the part of the site operator.
The only other valid purpose is to enable automatic login. I have noticed that some sites (such as Silicon) do it with a proper persistent cookie, though what else it tracks is unknown. However some do it with non-persistent cookies and they are an extreme irritation as it results in a proliferation of the dreaded post-it password reminders.
If cookies were only used for login purposes and could not be read remotely, and web site designers developed their databases better with sufficient hardware capacity then the need to rely on these dangerous and almost uncontrollable code snippets could be eliminated.
3. BillK
My browser (FireFox) is set to allow all cookies for this session only.
This stops websites pestering me to allow their precious cookies, but they are all deleted when I close the browser.
Eventually websites will realise that installing personal data files on visiting computers is not a good idea. If they want to track visitors preferences, then they will have to make them signon every visit and store the data files on their own servers.