Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

On the Web, Children Face Intensive Tracking

Posted by timothy on from the sniffing-out-the-jailbait dept.

theodp writes "In the latest installment of their online privacy investigation, the Wall Street Journal reports that children face intensive tracking on the web, finding that popular children's websites install more tracking technologies on personal computers than do the top websites aimed at adults. In an analysis of 50 sites popular with US teens and children, the WSJ found that Google — whose execs recently lectured parents on online child safety — placed the most tracking files overall."

3 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Advertising? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Considering what sort of advertisements you see on "children's" TV stations, is this any surprise? Children are targets for marketing firms, since they can whine and nag their parents in ways that the firms cannot.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  2. I have no problem with sites using Cookies by HockeyGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Its foolish to say cookies are harmful they are a technology that is required by many online applications and if the end user wants to they can always turn them off or block specific sites from placing a cookie in your cache.

    They are not the same as malware.

    Cookies are not Malware they can not enter your Operating System and send data to anyone.

    What some people are paranoid about is Opening Google Webmail and then browsing porn sites or other not so nice sites....

    Hey idiots WEB SERVERS HAVE ACCESS LOGS the sites you visit already know every file you touch on their site ...

    Not to mention routers and Squid servers used by your ISP can track all of your actions... and that has nothing to do with cookies.

    WAKE UP!

  3. Re:What the? by angiasaa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ah, good point there! As far as I can guess, the only way google can "guess" at the childishness of the user is by tracking the sites visited and drawing conclusions from that.

    This, as you suggest, is merely a headline hook. After all, no self-respecting human being ought to be staking their lives on the Wall Street Journal. Goodness knows how much flack they've already taken on other reports, and how much more of it they can and will take. :)

    Back to the point though, any site that gives up a cookie does so for tracking reasons. If most people on the planet use one google service or another, it's highly likely that most machines would be eating a lot of google cookies. Pure common sense there!

    I really don't see the how storing a cookie on a kids computer would be any more (if at all) dangerous than storing cookies on adults computer. :|

    Just sensational media hype this.. Ah, there's my grain of salt! :)

    --
    Geekism is your _only_ God!