cookies | Internet Marketing Blog

Web browser fingerprints — a new tracking method no one uses

Consumers and privacy advocates are forever concerned about the ways they can be tracked online. But it looks like one effective method has not gotten much attention to date: the browser. According to a new study from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, 84% of browsers have an "instantaneously unique fingerprint." What's more? Efforts to disguise a browser might actually make consumers more easily identifiable.

Now if only companies were using this information for nefarious purposes, we'd have a real privacy issue on our hands.

by Meghan Keane 17 May 2010 23:15pm 1 comment

Nine tips for protecting your privacy online

Facebook's recent 'instant personalization' has the blogosphere buzzing, and the privacy implications haven't gone unnoticed. Some believe that privacy is effectively dead online, and that individuals simply need to "get over it."

But is that really the case? Is privacy dead? For those of us who are active online, maintaining privacy can be a difficult task, but it's not impossible.

by Patricio Robles 12 May 2010 09:01am 0 comments

Cookies under fire as regulators move in

A massive push on securing opt-ins from consumers on cookies is well under way both here and in the US.

For the record, and contrary to what you might think, I’m glad, if only because it forces us to review how we failed so badly to keep the wider world informed about how online advertising works.

by Paul Cook 25 March 2010 11:44am 3 comments

More foolishness: German government officials claim Google Analytics is illegal

Are government bureaucrats in Europe trying to kill the commercial internet? If you've been following all of the laws, directives and general bureaucratic gobbledygook lately, you just might start to think the answer is 'yes'.

And now comes a new gem: some government officials in Germany apparently believe that Google Analytics is illegal. That's right, the free analytics service provided by Google is a threat to the citizens of Germany and they must be protected!

by Patricio Robles 26 November 2009 09:13am 10 comments

EU: no cookies without consent. Will EU affiliate programs be killed?

Earlier this year, I wrote about an EU plan to require that internet users consent to cookies before they're placed on their computers. At the time, I called the plan "absurd".

Which must be precisely why the Council of the EU has approved a directive amending legislation to do just that. The announcement of this potentially horrendous action? Well-hidden in an 18 page Council press release.

by Patricio Robles 13 November 2009 09:20am 31 comments

We mustn’t let the cookies crumble

Everyone in our industry is looking for a better solution than the hoary old ‘last click wins’ payment model. Advertisers want the ability to measure their customers’ complete purchase journey and networks and publishers want to be able to prove the wider reaching value that they know that they provide.

Yet, while the industry should of course continue to explore and pioneer new systems, such as eBay’s Quality Click model or AgencyDMGs ‘Digital Brain’, we shouldn’t take our eye off the last click ball.

by Harvey Sarjant 08 October 2009 10:31am 1 comment

EU wants cookie approval

What if you had to receive consent to place a cookie on a user's computer? As an online publisher or digital marketer, you might find it very difficult to operate.

But that's exactly what an amendment that will be voted on in the EU Parliament considers requiring.

by Patricio Robles 07 April 2009 16:42pm 5 comments

President Obama ditches YouTube embedding

As we've discussed here at Econsultancy before, United States President Barack Obama loves social media. He used it with remarkable success during his campaign and he's using it as president.