Monday, October 29, 2012

Tracking cookies disclosure


"A note about tracking cookies: Some of the advertisers and Web analytics firms used on this site may place 'tracking cookies' on your computer. We are telling you about them right upfront, and we want you to know how to get rid of these tracking cookies if you like..." 

I saw this message today on http://allthingsd.com and thought it was an interesting sign of increased privacy concerns and a potential move toward greater transparency on the part of publishers. It is not surprising to me that the first time I have seen a message like this is on a tech blog targeted at fairly sophisticated users. The full disclosure information can be linked to here. I am, however a bit surprised to see an ad supported publisher state that "We’d prefer a totally opt-in system, but, as far as we know, the ad industry doesn’t have a practical one as of now." I am curious to see if messages like this will start popping up on a range of sites. Has anyone seen anything like this? Does anyone think that it is realistic to think that we could get an opt-in system? 

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