Internet Tracking Devices

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Internet Tracking Devices

Cookies are small text files stored on Internet browsers that assign unique numbers to individual users. These cookies are usually placed on Internet users' computers by web-sites without their knowledge. Every time that a user returns to the site that placed a cookie on their browser, the cookie is sent back from the user to the original web-site, providing a way to remember over time particular individuals. Furthermore, cookies are often simultaneously placed by third parties. The most common third-party cookies are placed by the various companies that serve banner ads that appear across many web-sites. Top companies in this business category include DoubleClick and Engage. Third-party cookie placement has been a hot target for electronic privacy advocates because it is a mechanism through which the third party may build a cookie-based profile of the sites a user visits.

What users can do to protect themselves against Cookies?

Microsoft has recently released a browser add-on intended to provide users with greater control over the browser-tracking cookies handed out by websites. The new features in the updated browser give you a clearer understanding of different types of cookies and where they originate, as well as an easier way to manage and delete them," according to Microsoft's download site. Microsoft's latest browser update has generated applause from privacy advocates -- and the hesitant acceptance of online advertising firms, which worried that rejected cookies could limit the effectiveness of targeted ads on the Web. Privacy advocates consider the dangers of the often-invisible user tracking that takes place on the Web to be tied in large part to third-party cookies. The latest...

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...vowing not to join online profiles to real-life identities, However, concerns about the company's tracking of Internet users have not ended. DoubleClick continues to use invisible images embedded in web pages, also referred to as "web bugs," to track users. The advertising company also continues to maintain two separate websites -- the Internet Address Finder (www.iaf.net) and the Get Away From It All Sweepstakes site (www.netdeals.com) -- both of which collect personal information.

DoubleClick's privacy practices are neither an isolated incident nor will it likely be the last. Online profiling of unknown users may be acceptable if there is a technology that maintains anonymity and a legal framework that supports anonymity. Without such a legal framework, there are no reassurances that profiles that are collected under the promise of anonymity will stay that way.

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