{"id":317933,"date":"2021-08-07T13:00:49","date_gmt":"2021-08-07T10:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/is-the-browser-cookie-web-tracker-dying-off-at-last\/"},"modified":"2023-01-23T13:19:11","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T10:19:11","slug":"is-the-browser-cookie-web-tracker-dying-off-at-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/is-the-browser-cookie-web-tracker-dying-off-at-last\/","title":{"rendered":"#Is the browser cookie web tracker dying off at last?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a27815175838\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a27815175838\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/is-the-browser-cookie-web-tracker-dying-off-at-last\/#Is_the_cookie_web_tracker_dying\" >Is the cookie web tracker dying?<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/is-the-browser-cookie-web-tracker-dying-off-at-last\/#What_is_a_cookie\" >What is a cookie?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/is-the-browser-cookie-web-tracker-dying-off-at-last\/#Whats_the_problem\" >What\u2019s the problem?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/is-the-browser-cookie-web-tracker-dying-off-at-last\/#Whats_next\" >What\u2019s next?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"c-header__heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Is_the_cookie_web_tracker_dying\"><\/span>Is the cookie web tracker dying?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<p>Cookies may be one of the most maligned parts of the internet, but they weren\u2019t always so notorious. Back in 1994, a young man named Lou Montulli\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2001\/09\/04\/business\/giving-web-a-memory-cost-its-users-privacy.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">developed the cookie<\/a>\u00a0as a way for website operators to help users save work by remembering them across multiple visits.<\/p>\n<p>The humble idea quickly caught on and morphed into a tool for advertisers to closely track user behavior across the internet and target their ads <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ropriately.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen advertisements became popular, especially with Google and all these ad markets, then there was more momentum toward finding and tracking data because the advertising had to be personalized,\u201d said Rahul Telang, a professor of information systems at Carnegie Mellon University.<\/p>\n<p>Today, cookies are pervasive on the modern web. But there are also signs that they\u2019re on their way out: In 2019, Mozilla announced that its popular Firefox browser would block third-party cookies by default, describing the change in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/products\/firefox\/todays-firefox-blocks-third-party-tracking-cookies-and-cryptomining-by-default\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a blog post<\/a>\u00a0as \u201ca major step in our multi-year effort to bring stronger, usable privacy protections to everyone using Firefox.\u201d Last year, Apple\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2020\/3\/24\/21192830\/apple-safari-intelligent-tracking-privacy-full-third-party-cookie-blocking\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">introduced similar<\/a>\u00a0default protections for the Safari browser.<\/p>\n<p>Google, which brought the business model of tracking users for ad targeting to massive scale, has been slower to adopt similar changes. After initially pledging in 2020 to block third-party tracking for users of its Chrome browser by 2022, Google\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/recode\/2021\/6\/24\/22548700\/google-cookies-ban-delay-floc-tracking\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pushed the date<\/a>\u00a0for the change back to 2023.<\/p>\n<p>For now, however, cookies are still nearly ubiquitous. When The Markup\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/themarkup.org\/blacklight\/2020\/09\/22\/how-we-built-a-real-time-privacy-inspector#survey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">scanned more than 80,000 popular websites<\/a>\u00a0using our web privacy inspection tool\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/themarkup.org\/blacklight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Blacklight<\/a>, we found that 87\u00a0percent loaded cookies from third parties or from tracking network requests.<\/p>\n<p>And even once cookies are gone, the technologies slated to replace them come with concerns of their own.<\/p>\n<p>So what, exactly, is a cookie? And what would getting rid of them actually solve?<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a rundown.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_is_a_cookie\"><\/span><strong>What is a cookie?<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Simply, it\u2019s a small file that tags website visitors to recognize them later. When you browse a website with cookies, the file is stored on your computer. Later, websites and tracking companies can look at that file to see who you are and determine certain things about your behavior, like whether you return to the site frequently or put certain shopping items in your cart on the site the last time you visited.<\/p>\n<p>In one commonly used analogy, it\u2019s like a coat check. You hand over your coat and get a ticket in exchange, so the attendant can determine what belongs to you when you return.<\/p>\n<p>So when you visit, say, a shopping website, a cookie might determine what products you look at. Another cookie might be used to remember your login information so you don\u2019t have to reenter your password every time you visit.<\/p>\n<p>Cookies come in different flavors. There are first-party cookies\u2014ones that come from the site you\u2019re visiting\u2014along with third-party cookies, which load when you visit a site but aren\u2019t necessarily from the site you\u2019re visiting. You may be shopping for shoes on a retail store\u2019s site, for example, when a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> tracker starts to follow you around.<\/p>\n<p>The trackers can either be \u201csession\u201d cookies or \u201cpersistent\u201d cookies. Session cookies, as the name suggests, expire when you end your session, by closing your browser, for example. But persistent cookies can stick around until they reach an expiration date, possibly months or even years later.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Whats_the_problem\"><\/span><strong>What\u2019s the problem?<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>For one, the information collected by cookies can be extraordinarily sensitive. To build a profile of you, cookies can track information about your browsing history to guess your demographics and interests. If you\u2019re a 45-year-old woman who frequents websites for soccer scores, for example, that\u2019s a data point that could be valuable to advertisers looking to sell soccer jerseys.<\/p>\n<p>Using data obtained from cookies, advertisers can then target ads directly to people they think might interact with them. They can also check whether someone has seen an ad, or interacted with one already. Eventually, they can build a dossier that works out your age, interests\u2014and even, with some effort,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2017\/01\/170119134540.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">potentially identify<\/a>\u00a0exactly who you are.<\/p>\n<p>All of it happens in a way that\u2019s invisible to most people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour browsing history could be shared with dozens of different companies that you\u2019ve never heard of,\u201d said Bennett Cyphers, a staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) who has followed recent changes in web-tracking <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to figure out that it\u2019s happening at all, and then it\u2019s almost impossible to figure out what happens to that data after it leaves your computer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An investigation by The Markup using Blacklight uncovered just how sensitive that information can be. Last year\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/themarkup.org\/blacklight\/2020\/09\/22\/blacklight-tracking-advertisers-digital-privacy-sensitive-websites\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">we found<\/a>\u00a0user data being tracked for advertisers on more than 100 websites offering services for undocumented immigrants, domestic and sexual abuse survivors, sex workers, and LGBTQ people.<\/p>\n<p>And there are few laws that strictly regulate the use of cookies. Implemented in 2018, Europe\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General<\/a> Data Protection Regulation, or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/gdpr-info.eu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">GDPR<\/a>, requires website operators to have visitors consent to being tracked through cookies. But in practice, Cyphers said, people rapidly click \u201cconsent\u201d without thinking much about what they\u2019re agreeing to.<\/p>\n<p>In the United States, there\u2019s even less protection. One state law, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/oag.ca.gov\/privacy\/ccpa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CCPA<\/a>, requires disclosures about how data is collected and stored but does not require consent for cookies.<\/p>\n<p>There are some cookie-blocking options built by third parties. Tools like the browser extension\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ublock.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">uBlock<\/a>\u00a0or the EFF-built\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/privacybadger.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Privacy Badger<\/a>\u00a0can stop unwanted cookies from loading, but they often also block ads, which means that websites try to block users of those tools.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Whats_next\"><\/span><strong>What\u2019s next?<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The good <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> is the internet seems to be trending away from the cookie. Cyphers said consumer awareness of web tracking and more ways for those consumers to opt out have led to diminishing returns for advertisers. \u201cMost people don\u2019t want to go around sharing their browser history with random strangers,\u201d Cyphers said.<\/p>\n<p>Bowing to that consumer demand, Mozilla\u2019s Firefox and Apple\u2019s Safari both moved to block third-party tracking by default on their popular browsers in the past few years, and Google has pledged to follow suit with its Chrome browser. The changes have led to uncertainty for companies who have built their businesses around advertising based on user behavior. Some have\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.modernretail.co\/platforms\/cookiepocalypse-what-the-death-of-the-third-party-cookie-means-for-retailers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">taken to calling it<\/a>\u00a0the \u201ccookiepocalypse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But even if the cookie meets its demise, there are hints that the tracking tech of the future may introduce its own concerns.<\/p>\n<p>Google, for example, has proposed a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> of technologies like FLoC, short for Federated Learning of Cohorts, which, instead of allowing advertisers to use third-party cookies to track visitors, would effectively track user behavior on the Chrome browser directly, then sort users into groups and share that information in bulk with advertisers. Google\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.google\/products\/ads-commerce\/2021-01-privacy-sandbox\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">describes it<\/a>\u00a0as a \u201cprivacy-first future\u201d solution, but privacy advocates aren\u2019t so certain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFLoC is based on large anonymous groups, not tracking individuals across the web as third-party cookies do today,\u201d Vinay Goel, privacy engineering director for Chrome, said in a statement. \u201cChrome has also built into FLoC robust measures removing groupings\/classifications that may be more strongly associated with sensitive topics such as race, sexuality, or personal hardships, without learning specifically which sensitive topics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cyphers, for one, has been skeptical of Google\u2019s plan, recently describing it in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2021\/03\/googles-floc-terrible-idea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a blog post<\/a>\u00a0as \u201ca terrible idea\u201d and simply trading one form of surveillance for another.<\/p>\n<p>Telang, the Carnegie Mellon professor, said he\u2019s encouraged by the push for improved privacy\u2014but that it\u2019s not clear whether changes made by companies will ultimately lead to a better future for consumers. \u201cRight now, we only know that, hey, they\u2019ll stop the private information being shared,\u201d said Telang. \u201cBut will it lead to improved security? That\u2019s a question that I don\u2019t know the answer to right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Cyphers pointed out in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2021\/04\/after-cookies-ad-tech-wants-use-your-email-track-you-everywhere\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a recent blog post<\/a>\u00a0for the EFF, some smaller advertisers are also pitching their own plans to continue tracking users in a post-cookie world, possibly by pressing them to more frequently share unique IDs like email addresses.<\/p>\n<p>Cyphers said changes like that would be relatively transparent for users\u2014but would also mean handing over personal information closely tied to your identity that could be used to track you for years into the future. \u201cIt\u2019s better and it\u2019s worse,\u201d Cyphers said. \u201cI think it\u2019s mostly worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whether one, or none, of the ideas gain steam, the future of the internet beyond the cookie is at a clear turning point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s still the most common way that people are tracked on the web,\u201d Cyphers said, \u201cbut I think that over the next few years, that is going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>This article by Colin Lecher was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/themarkup.org\/ask-the-markup\/2021\/07\/30\/is-the-cookie-web-tracker-dying\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">originally published on The Markup<\/a>\u00a0and was republished under the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a><a>\u00a0license.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Related article : <a href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/best-and-worst-us-states-online-privacy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Best &amp; Worst States in America for Online Privacy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/is-cookie-web-tracker-dying-syndication\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is the cookie web tracker dying? Cookies may be one of the most maligned parts of the internet, but they weren\u2019t always so notorious. Back in 1994, a young man named Lou Montulli\u00a0developed the cookie\u00a0as a way for website operators to help users save work by remembering them across multiple visits. The humble idea quickly&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":317934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image\/tnw?filter_last=1&fit=1280,640&url=https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/08\/Cookie-web-tracker-hed-Dana-Amihere-The-Markup.jpg&signature=fe83e20b424757c2cbc3f847ee6be984","fifu_image_alt":"#Is the browser cookie web tracker dying off at last?","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[138799,138798,138797,72991,121557],"class_list":["post-317933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-cookies","tag-federated-learning-of-cohorts","tag-general-data-protection-regulation","tag-internet-privacy","tag-tracking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}