The Cookie Crumbles contest deadline has been extended! The contest to make a short YouTube video that explains web cookies to average internet users will now remain open to 11:59 pm Pacific time on Sunday, October 21. If you’ve been thinking about entering but just haven’t been sure, let this – and the $5,000 grand prize – be your incentive!

StopBadware and our parent organization, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, are hosting an online video contest to help explain web cookies to average internet users.

Help answer these common cookies questions:

• What is a cookie?
• How do cookies work?
• How can cookies be used?
• How is the data from cookies used with data collected in other ways, including from third parties?
• How can cookies be misused?
• What options does a user have to manage cookies and their use?

The top few submissions, as determined by a combination of YouTube viewers and Berkman Center staff, will earn their creators a trip to Washington, D.C., where their videos will be aired and discussed at the United States Federal Trade Commission’s November 1-2 Town Hall workshop entitled “Ehavioral Advertising: Tracking, Targeting, and Technology.” Several prizes will be awarded, including one grand prize of $5,000. The contest will run until October 20, 2007.

How do you enter? Just create a short video explaining cookies, upload it to YouTube and submit it to our YouTube group, and then officially enter the contest through our submissions form. Of course, be sure to read all the official rules and guidelines first!

More info about the contest is here.