Cookies and tracking technology
There has been some coverage in the media recently surrounding the EU ePrivacy directive concerning companies using tracking technology to profile users browsing habits and using this tracking information for behavioural advertising.
How does tracking work?
Tracking makes use of cookies; which are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites for various different reasons. For example, web-based email providers normally utilise cookies to "remember" who you are while you are using their service.
Are cookies safe?
Cookies, in themselves, are generally harmless and are actually required for using certain functions of a website.
The information stored in these cookies can include: your IP address, which is usually logged anyway when you visit a website; your username, if logged into a website such as web-based email; the contents of your shopping cart, if shopping online.
Any sensitive information, such as passwords, is usually encrypted by the website before they are stored on your computer. When the cookie is accessed by the website again, the information is decrypted securely.
Although generally harmless and limited to 4KB (kilobytes) in size, it is good computer maintenance to delete your stored cookies every now and then, depending on how much you browse the Internet.
Each cookie is set to expire after a certain amount of time, which allows some websites to remember you for long periods of time. An example of this would be where you select a "remember me" option on a website you frequent, to avoid having to login each time you visit the website.
How does tracking technology work?
Tracking technology is able to read the cookies stored on your computer to determine which websites you have visited. They use this information to build a profile of your browsing habits which then allows them to display specific adverts tailored to your browsing history.
For example, you may have visited a travel company website and looked at flight information. On a vist to another website you may see an advertisement offering cheap flights, this is targeted advertising. This form of targeted advertising is based on someone’s past browsing activity.
What effect will the new ePrivacy directive have?
The new directive states that websites must first seek consent before using tracking technology.
Although the new directive comes into force on 25 May no European government has yet drawn up the guidelines for how the ePrivacy directive will be enforced.
Development guides
These guides require Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded from the following link.