Microsoft’s admission that it has been tracking online users with zombie cookies – and more advanced “supercookies” – has sparked warnings of a raft of legal action against companies found to be using them.
“Zombie cookies” are formed when users try to delete their browsing history only for the cookies to “rise from the grave” in a different folder on their computer.
Last year, Disney, MySpace, and NBC Universal were successfully sued in the US for using the technology, while Clearspring and Quantcast, the primary defendants in the first zombie cookie class-action lawsuit, paid out $2.4m (£1.5m).
The European Commission has also waded into the debate, calling on the advertising industry to stop supporting consumer tracking techniques which are virtually impossible to delete.
The move reinforced fears that the digital industry is continually working on ways to circumvent legislation, rather than working with the authorities to reach a solution on privacy concerns.
Totally Communications head of technology Ben Gritz says that despite new Do Not Track features built into the most recent versions of popular Internet browsers, marketers are always going to use any tools available to them: “That’s never going to stop,” he claimed.
He added: “These so-called ‘supercookies’ have been around for a while; early reports about them date back to 2007. Both users and developers need to understand that supercookies are not only set by the browser, but third party plug-ins as well. So it’s not only the browser they need to be concerned about when thinking about their privacy, but also any third party plug-in they choose to install.
“Users need to be aware that if they install any third party plug-in, their online activity is potentially being tracked without their knowledge and with no easy way of clearing them out.”
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