[UPDATE] A cookie here, a cookie there, malicious spyware everywhere?
BY David All | Monday, March 19 2007
Last week at the IPDI Conference in Washington, DC, the keynote address was offered by Elliot Schrage, the VP of Global Communications & Public Affairs for Google.
In his address, he noted that the "downside of access is intrusion" and suggested that this could be the year that a candidate is found using some form of malicious spyware to collect more information about its visitors.
We already know that candidates are doing this...sorta.
In fact, Barack Obama uses at least four different tracking cookies, one of which doesn't expire for decades. But, to his credit, they disclose as much in their privacy policy:
We use cookies on our site. A "cookie" is a tiny text file that we store on your computer to customize your experience and support some necessary functions. We also use cookies to better understand how our visitors use our site. Our cookies contain no Personal Information and are neither shared nor revealed to other sites. We do not look for or at other sites' cookies on your computer.
And Republicans fill our jars too. John McCain uses a single cookie, and says so in his privacy policy.
The difference is that his expires after the users' session.
Look, I understand that cookies are relatively insignificant pieces of data in the grand scheme of things. But, it's the beginning of a slippery slope.
So I pose a question to the smart people in the audience: How much privacy are we willing to cede to our Presidential candidates in their quest to target their message to us?
UPDATE Mar 20; 10:34 AM: I have a feeling this post came out a bit more extreme than originally intended and I think a clarification is in order.
I am not suggesting that "cookies" are "malicious spyware." In fact, that's why I expressly used a "?" in the title, the word "sorta," and added the entire paragraph beginning, "Look, I understand that cookies are relatively insignificant..."
I'm merely bringing the issue to discussion and connecting it with what Elliot Schrage of Google foresees. In other words, is it possible that the use of "cookies," could be the first step in to something much deeper and darker? Are they all Google Analytics cookies? Should we just ignore all cookies entirely?
These are very real questions which I think should be discussed at the ethical and technical level.