When you log onto Facebook, isn’t it strange that no “remember me” box is checked, but your password and email are still in place? The same phenomenon will apply to websites like Amazon, Google, and YouTube, all very popular, heavily trafficked websites with consumers in mind and an emphasis on family values. Or so we thought. How does Amazon know what you’re looking for? Why are all of Facebook’s advertisements geared almost directly at you? All of these oddities can be explained by a simple, tasty word: cookies.
Cookies via the Internet are less enjoyable than an Oreo. Microsoft explains a cookie as:
“A very small text file placed on your hard drive by a Web Page server. It is essentially your identification card, and cannot be executed as code or deliver viruses. It is uniquely yours and can only be read by the server that gave it to you.”
In lemans terms, a cookie is a file downloaded onto your computer from a website, like Amazon, to store data, gather important consumer information, or create a user-specific, custom experience when visiting most recent websites. Cookies are essential for modern web browsing, some sites not allowing use if cookies aren’t enabled.
Cookies have always been a topic of privacy dispute. With their capability to gather information on consumers’ salary, age, and even location, some feel as if cookies are doing more harm than good. Recently, the Federal Trade Commission has been granted the responsibility of creating a so-called “do not track” list. Similar to the “do not call” list, the plan would allow Internet users a site to site function, letting them select to be tracked on the site or not. The “do not track” list and other ideas have been brought before the Federal Trade Commission and the Commerce Department, each taking a separate, even possibly conflicting, stance on the matter.
The Commerce Department has always let the industry self-regulate, while trade officials enjoy the idea of having websites offer a “do not track” feature on the site. Offering an option to consumers will make them feel more in control, possibly even excited at the idea of further or weaker customization. If the Federal Trade Commission makes a decision based on the ideals of consumers, then a whole new set of regulations will be placed on popular Internet sites and companies. If the Commerce Department is left to make the call, I feel as if big business will the most to say, pushing for a system much like the one now, allowing the sites to police themselves as they see fit.
For more information, head over to the New York Times.
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