According to a recent study, more than half of Internet users delete cookies, seriously undermining website operators' ability to measure consumer behaviour on their sites.
Cookies are uploaded to people's computers when they visit business websites. They are used to track visitors' behaviour on a site in order to build improvements or offer products of interest, a process known as ‘personalisation’. The information is also important for advertising campaigns and email marketing.
"Cookies, 99 out of a 100 times, are not an invasion of a consumer's privacy or security," Eric Peterson, analyst for Jupiter Research, said. "They're just harmless little text files."
We're looking at this development from the wrong vantage point: what does the consumer/computer user think?
They've been told that any surreptitiously planted files or programs could have potentially devastating consequences for their computers. Programs like AdAware and Firefox make it dead easy to delete cookies: they will be deleted unless the consumer is convinced of the value of cookies - to them personally.
This shouldn't be a surprise. Take a look at the brewing consumer unrest about RFID tags in Britain: a little misinformation, a touch of confusion, and some distrust will undermine the most innocuous of technologies.
Posted by: Colin McKay | 19 March 2005 at 05:29 AM