Items tagged with cookies

For millions of Chrome browser users, third-party tracking cookies are no longer part of the deal while surfing the internet. That's because Google has finally begun implementing its plan to phase out third-party cookies, albeit initially for a small fraction of Chrome users—just 1%. While that may seem like a... Read more...
We recently wrote about TikTok’s extensive user data collection and an FCC commissioner's letter asking Apple and Google to ban the app from their app stores for violating their privacy policies. While TikTok goes to great lengths to collect user data, there is some small solace in the fact that users can avoid the... Read more...
After more than a year of testing, Google is abandoning plans to replace support for third-party tracking cookies with the "Federated Learning of Cohorts," otherwise known as FLoC, basically an algorithm that sorts people into groups with others who have similar browsing habits. Google isn't embracing third-party... Read more...
Google is on a mission to crumble the third-party cookie infrastructure that the web is largely based on, as it relates to lucrative targeted advertising efforts, and rebuild things with an initiative called FLoC, or Federated Learning of Cohorts. Not without controversy, Google's FLoC ad-tracking has drawn an... Read more...
Earlier this year, Google announced the Federated Learning of Cohorts, or FLoC, which would improve user privacy around the web. While this has led to some scrutiny, such as a Department of Justice antitrust probe, it will hopefully bring a safe and responsible end to third-party cookies. The technology is now rolling... Read more...
Homer Simpson spoke for all of us when he said, "Mmm...crumbled-up cookie things" in Lisa the Greek (Season 3, Episode 14). I mean really, who does not like cookies? Or cookie things? Be that as it may, cookies in browsers are not always so delectable, and so Google is changing the recipe for developers with the... Read more...
Starting next month, Google will tighten the controls on its Chrome browser by limiting cross-site tracking, and within the next two years, it plans on eliminating third-party cookies from the equation. These and other steps are part of a larger initiative Google is calling "Privacy Sandbox," which entails open... Read more...
One of the most important and hotly debated topics of the Internet era has been net neutrality, the concept that all web traffic should be treated equally. Internet service providers and wireless carriers continue to fight against net neutrality rules and want the right to charge services like Netflix for faster... Read more...
Cookies are the most popular way of tracking Internet users today, but by this time next year, they could be old news. We already know that Google is planning to replace cookies with something else, and there's chatter that Apple and Facebook will follow suit as well. Now we've learned that Microsoft is looking beyond cookies, too. Microsoft's... Read more...
As we reported back in February, Mozilla had plans to introduce cookie-blocking by default in version 22 of its Firefox Web browser. Well, it seems that the company has realized that it might have been a bit hasty in wanting to implement the change so quickly, so now, it's decided to hold off as it needs more time to analyze the outcome of... Read more...
Privacy advocates owe a debt of gratitude to Jonathan Mayer, a grad student at Standford who developed a patch for Firefox that, by default, blocks third-party cookies from installing on their browser, thereby protecting users from being tracked by advertisers. Mozilla plans to bake the patch into Firefox 22, which... Read more...