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FCC Meets To Investigate Cookie Abuse

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the cookie-monsters dept.

PreacherTom writes to tell us BusinessWeek is reporting that the FCC and the Center for Digital Democracy plan to meet in order to discuss abuses with regard to cookies. From the article: "Online advertisers have a sweet tooth for cookies. Not the kind you bake, but the digital kind — those tiny files that embed themselves on a PC and keep tabs on what Web sites are visited on which machines. But cookies could have a bad aftertaste for consumers. Privacy advocates say the files are being force fed in large quantities to computer users, and they're demanding that the government put some advertisers on a diet."

13 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. Alright, I'll Cut Back! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    FCC Meets to Investigate Cookie Abuse
    Jeez, lay off me, ok? My doctor's been bustin' my balls about it, the last thing I need is the government on my back.

    I'm sorry, I'm sorry! But when you leave a box of those girl scout confections next to me, what do you think I'm going to do? They're gone after a few lines of coding and I don't even remember eating them!

    *breaks down sobbing

    I'm a sick man! I need help! Someone just check me into the Betty Crocker clinic already!

    Suggested tag: thinkofthecookies
  2. FCC Meets to Investigate Cookie Abuse by GillBates0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thousands of children arrested for crumbling cookies and drowning them in milk.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  3. When contacted for comment on this... by spiritraveller · · Score: 4, Funny

    Cookie Monster replied, "Me not guilty. Cookie goooooooooooood!"

    1. Re:When contacted for comment on this... by scottschiller · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Another cookie article, and yet more cooking/baking analogies. Someone should write a cookie monster Greasemonkey script which brings up that particular character ("And now, me eat cookie! Owmwowmowmwowmowmwmowm...."), before setting document.cookie to null.

      Many sites stuff advertising and tracking-related data in there alongside your login/auth information in cookies, so it seems you can't win if you need to browse with credentials etc. Blocking 3rd-party cookies is probably the safest bet against ads and so on at this point though, without disrupting cookies required just to browse/authenticate.

  4. Are you kidding? by spencerogden · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is this really an area we need more laws about? The dangers of cookies have been overblown for a long time. Not to mention that fact that all browsers give the user more than adequate control over their cookies.

    If this is the best thing the FCC can find to waste their time on, then they have become worthless.

    --

    Spencer Ogden

    1. Re:Are you kidding? by neoform · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Headline should have read:

      "FCC Meets to Over-Assert Itself Once Again"

      --
      MABASPLOOM!
  5. The summary is an understatement. by jZnat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Try browsing with cookies on an "ask me every time" sort of basis. Even the most unlikely websites will demand a cookie. What ever happened to sane usage of cookies where they'd only be set if you did something on the site that initiated a cookie transfer (e.g. logging in, starting a shopping cart, storing your preferences)?

    --
    'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
    1. Re:The summary is an understatement. by TodMinuit · · Score: 5, Funny

      What ever happened to sane usage of cookies where they'd only be set if you did something on the site that initiated a cookie transfer (e.g. logging in, starting a shopping cart, storing your preferences)?

      Oh man, remember those good old days? Before every site was covered in AdSense. When MySpace was the glimmer in some nerds eye. Before every moron lip-synced horrible songs on YouTube. When email was used for communication. When people actually used correct English. When Pluto was still a planet.

      I remember!!! Flobble-de-flee!

      --
      I wonder if I use bold in my signature, people will notice my posts.
  6. Oh criminy by A+nonymous+Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just disable cookies in the browser by default. Or make them session cookies, that's a good enough second best.

    What's the government supposed to do next, make it illegal for anyone to download a virus?

    Honestly, some people won't be satisfied until the government publishes a 500 page manual on how to wipe your ass and makes it illegal to do it in any other way.

    --
    Infuriate left and right
    1. Re:Oh criminy by ajs · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, you're hyperbolizing. Some people (myself included) won't be happy until the government sets limits on how personal information can be used by corporations. I don't like the fact, for example, that my mother's phone company shares personal information with her Internet provider who then buys information derived from cookies to develop a package that allows telemarketers to target her based on what Web sites she uses. This is not what the Internet is there for, and I personally want a stop put to it. Limiting abuse of cookies (especially cross-site hand-offs that are used specifically to track broad activity across disconnected sites) would be a good first step, and one that should have happened years ago when certain companies which NDAs prevent me from naming (not related to my current company, thankfully) started the practice.

    2. Re:Oh criminy by kenj0418 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Honestly, some people won't be satisfied until the government publishes a 500 page manual on how to wipe your ass and makes it illegal to do it in any other way.

      I wouldn't mind if the government gave me a 500 page manual for wiping my ass. As long as the pages were soft - that is.

  7. More laws != good laws by daeg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Laws don't always correct things. This isn't something you can legislate. The sheer number of exceptions would make this law more complicated than anyone could follow or enforce.

    Don't like cookies? Don't visit the sites that use them.

    1. Re:More laws != good laws by KokorHekkus · · Score: 5, Informative

      Sweden has had a law mandating full disclosure of how cookies are used since 2003. In practice this means there's a small notification to a static page on how they use cookies. So it's not exactly an undue burden for a website. Having a lot of exceptions would make this complicated? Then don't have any... we don't in Sweden. Nothing has crumbled and died here yet.