[Chapter-delegates] cookies

[Joly MacFie]

In the USA, in order to stave off regulation, the ad industry promoted
consumer education and transparency. However the FTC concluded that
educating consumers was just not practicable, and that what was required
was a "more uniform and comprehensive consumer choice mechanism"  i.e. a
do-not-track button, nevertheless "opt-out" being desirable in the name of
commerce. See http://isoc-ny.org/p2/?p=1523 The browser makers then went
ahead and implemented  various schemes via the W3C and IETF, with Firefox
liking a header based approach, and Microsoft a list-based system.
http://isoc-ny.org/p2/?p=1705

I haven't, as yet, found time to review the Obama statement on such matters
from  last Thursday. Perhaps someone else can comment?

j



On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 3:05 AM, Jozef Halbersztadt <jothal at o2.pl> wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> In Poland we are in process of updating privacy regulations, which were
> amended by European Union in 2009. My question is about cookies provisions,
> their implementation is your countries. New directive demands 'opt-in',
> industry would strongly prefer 'opt-out' set up, that was allowed till now.
> A few sentences on the UK situation you can find here:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_on_Privacy_and_Electronic_Communications#Cookies
>
> Are you aware how problem was solved in your country? Are information in
> the table correct?
> http://www.ffw.com/pdf/cookie-consent-tracking-table.pdf
>
> Is cookies consent problem debated in non-European countries, especially
> the USA?
>
> The UK Government commissioned PriceWaterhouseCoopers to conduct research
> into the potential impact of cookies regulation. PWC conducted an online
> survey of over 1000 individuals in February 2011.
> http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/consultations/PwC_Internet_Cookies_final.pdf
>
> Main findings:
>
> Despite the report acknowledging that the most intensive internet
> users are overrepresented in the sample, the results illustrate that
> significant percentages of these more ‘internet savvy’ consumers have
> limited understanding of cookies and how to manage them:
>
> - 41% of those surveyed were unaware of any of the different types of
> cookies (first party, third party, Flash / Local Storage). Only 50%
> were aware of first party cookies.
> - Only 13% of respondents indicated that they fully understood how
> cookies work, 37% had heard of internet cookies but did not understand
> how they work and 2% of people had not heard of internet cookies
> before participating in the survey.
> - 37% said they did not know how to manage cookies on their computer.
> - The survey tested respondents’ knowledge of cookies, asking them to
> confirm if a number of statements about cookies were correct or not.
> Out of the sixteen statements only one was answered correctly by the
> majority of respondents.
>
> Those who use the internet less regularly, or have a generally lower
> level of technical awareness, are even less likely to understand the
> way cookies work and how to manage them. The report concluded that
> ‘broader consumer education about basic online privacy fundamentals
> could go a long way toward making users feel more comfortable online
> and also enable them to take more control of their privacy while
> online’ and that ‘online businesses will need to evolve their data
> collection and usage transparency in order to illustrate to consumers
> the benefits of opting-in.’
>
> Best regards,
> Jozef Halbersztadt
>
> --
> 'JotHal' jozef [dot] halbersztadt [at] gmail [dot] com
> Internet Society Poland http://www.isoc.org.pl
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>



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