Posted by Erica George
Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:39:00 GMT
The New York Times this weekend featured an editorial by Adam Cohen on erosions of user privacy caused by commercial behavioral tracking. While behavioral tracking (primarily through the use of cookies attached to web pages or to display ads) is not inherently bad, it’s important that companies employing tracking properly disclose what they’re doing in their privacy policies and user agreements.
Cohen notes that the scope of information a company can now learn about its users is larger than many users realize:
Web sites can charge a premium if they are able to tell the maker of an expensive sports car that its ads will appear on Web pages clicked on by upper-income, middle-aged men.
The information, however, gets a lot more specific than age and gender — and more sensitive. Tech companies can keep track of when a particular Internet user looks up Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, visits adult Web sites, buys cancer drugs online or participates in anti-government discussion groups.
Cohen also points out that in many cases, users don’t have enough information about how their personal tracking records will be used:
The bigger issue is the digital dossiers that tech companies can compile. Some companies have promised to keep data confidential, or to obscure it so it cannot be traced back to individuals. But it’s hard to know what a particular company’s policy is, and there are too many to keep track of. And privacy policies can be changed at any time.
Companies can help by making sure their privacy policies are easy to find and understand, and that these policies fully disclose what data is being tracked and how it is being handled after it is collected. StopBadware’s guidelines are a great place to start for pointers on best practices for disclosure.
For more information about cookies and their role in behavioral tracking and privacy, check out the videos from our Cookie Crumbles Contest last fall.
Tags ads, cookies, privacy, tracking
Posted by Erica George
Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:38:00 GMT
The finalist videos from the Cookie Crumbles contest are taking flight in the blogosphere, helping to educate internet users on just what web cookies actually are, and where we should (and shouldn’t) be concerned.
You can now see the grand prize winner, Clayton Miller’s “Cookies,” the Audience Choice winner, Justin & Kristin Schaack’s “Got Cookies?,” and the other three finalist videos on the contest homepage. You can view all the videos entered to the contest at our YouTube group.
You can also see all the finalist videos featured on Google’s newly created YouTube privacy channel. The channel will be a new way for Google users to learn about the privacy aspects of Google’s products.
As CNet’s Anne Broache notes, Google (besides being a sponsor of both StopBadware and the contest) itself relies on cookies. Broache blogs that both those concerned about user privacy and the companies that employ cookies can benefit from increased public understanding of how cookies really work.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s post on the contest includes some useful resources of its own, linking to a how-to on disabling cookies.
Finally, contest judge and Washington Post reporter Rob Pegoraro offers an inside view of what the contest was like from a judge’s seat.
Again, StopBadware and the Berkman Center congratulate all our finalists, and extend a sincere thank-you to everyone who participated in the contest. We hope this will become the first of many video efforts in users educating other users about security online.
Posted in all | Tags contest, cookies
Posted by Erica George
Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:25:00 GMT
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!
Posted in all | Tags contest, cookiecrumbles, cookies
Posted by Erica George
Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:54:00 GMT
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.
Posted in all | Tags contest, cookiecrumbles, cookies
|
