That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles

Microsoft has become the latest company to begin development on its replacement of the cookie.  Advertisers have been pushing the tech giants for a new version of the cookie that would work on mobile devices, TVs and other digital devices that are currently unsupported.  Currently 20% of all web traffic comes from mobile browsers which do not make use of the popular third party cookie.  Privacy advocates often warn against the cookie calling it insecure and an invasion of privacy because of its innate power to create long-term records of users browsing history.  Hackers often use authorization cookies to perform malicious attacks on web servers, tricking them that they are authorized.  Microsoft's cookie replacement would essentially behave as a device identifier which advertisers could use to target its marketing to a more specific audience.  Companies like Google and Facebook who already profit greatly on such advertising would likely see increased competition despite being the forerunners in designing the technology.  Microsoft's advertising team is pushing the new cookie whereas its Internet Explorer team had originally decided that it was right to turn off such tracking by default.  Microsoft claims to be working for the best interest of the consumer but I have my doubts.

Microsoft's new device identifier would require users to give permission that it would be solely responsible for the user's data.  Upon signing the ToS and user agreement on device setup,  Microsoft would unless opting out prior to signing the agreements, confide all privacy concerns within itself rather than third parties that generally handle this sort of things.  Microsoft would easily be able to see data that is generated from advertisers and other agencies that they often team with, essentially giving them a competitive edge.   Microsoft could also benefit through this by being able to control which devices and operating systems would be able to access its web apps.

These changes come after the Federal Government had tried to decide on a new cookie standard among the data giants.  A major flaw with cookies is who owns the data when it is being sent across multiple agencies.  Proprietary tracking systems allows the owner to paint a picture of a user's browsing patterns across multiple devices within the confines of the company.  These records are very valuable and having them owned by a single company scares me greatly.  The NSA may very likely continue to gather these records and more comprehensive data will only improve their power.  The change of ownership of the cookies, along with the HTML5 Encrypted Media Extensions that I blogged about last week will create boundaries on the web that can be abused by content owners and now advertisers.  Power is given to the user when there is transparency on how their data is being used.


src: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2013/10/10/c-is-for-dead-cookies-microsoft-working-on-new-tracking-technology/