Apropos Tech Solutions Corp. Blog

Tag: cookies

  • Electronic lifestyle, web: Cookies, part 1

    It seems that, with some new laws, we are often asked to accept cookies. But, should we, and to what extent?

    The following is according to my understanding.

    In my post from May 30 I mention some ideas about cookies, their tracking potential, etc.

    To me, cookie banners can be a little much, sometimes, because some ask the visitor to agree to questionable (in my opinion) or even outrageous cookie usage.

    Today I was on a site where this offer was made on a cookie banner:

    If you accept all cookies, you can be shown personalized ads on other sites beyond our own, since we can share your interests with our partners.

    One might wonder how many partners could be involved; I’ve seen one cookie banner that suggested over nine hundred.

    Somehow, being asked to agree to such things can be somewhat off-putting.

    I guess these cookie agreement banners stem from the GDPR, General Data Protection Regulation, out of Europe. For websites, it seems, they came into effect in 2018. As a result, sites need visitor consent to use said visitor’s data in certain ways.

    Lots of people probably just click “Accept All” on the cookie banners. I usually customize them down to the minimum necessary unless I like the site.

    Source:

    commission.europa.eu

    cookie-banner.ca

    -js

  • Web: Cookies, part 0

    Beginning ideas about cookies.

    Here’s my understanding about cookies:

    Cookies are bits of information stored on one’s browser. When you visit a site, that site may store one or more cookies on the browser. Then, when you return later, that same site can retrieve that information.

    Cookies can be retrieved to help the browser reload the page in the state you seemed to want it. They can also store information you entered on the site, such as a username and/or password. That way, as one navigates pages of the same site, one needn’t keep signing in each time.

    A third party advertiser on a site the browser visits may also be able to store a cookie on that browser. However, to my knowledge, a site can only recall its own cookies, not ones from other sites.

    Tracking cookies, as they are called, are used to find out other sites a browser visited. However, because a site can only recall its own cookies from the browser, tracking cookies only work when there is common ownership among the sites somehow. That could happen, for instance, if the same advertiser has ads on several sites the browser visits. In such a case, that advertiser might be able to retrieve cookies it put from all those sites, therefore realizing that browser visited them all.

    Cookies likely aren’t that much of a menace, but things can get a bit overdone sometimes, just on principle. I recall, with one cookie permission, a site mentioning its 841 partners would be sharing information based on cookies that would be placed on my browser. Seriously?

    Source:

    YouTube: Ask Leo! “What Are Tracking Cookies, and Should They Concern Me?”

    -JS