Cookies

 

Image from Pixabay

I really like American chocolate chip cookies. Just love those large chuncks of chocolate in a crunchy biscuit. It becomes a completely different story if you omit the first three words: in my country, the word cookie is solely associated with computer cookies and as such I associate them with annoying flies rather than with a delicacy.

The advertising and marketing industry – and especially its clients –have the right to earn their living. We all use all kinds of 'free' services on the internet, but of course the suppliers of those services need an income. They make money by accompanying their services with advertising. Let them have their fair share. Cookies are used to organize that advertising. A cookie is a file that is placed on your computer or mobile device and that records information about the contact with you; in other words, the relationship between your behavior and your device is recorded.

Unfortunately, shady practices are also used to earn even more money. To find out more about this, I had a conversation with my colleague Hans van Buuren, solution architect interaction and specialized in this subject. The common thread through our conversation was profiling. It is very important for advertisers that they understand our interests and needs. An offer on diapers blows me neither hot nor cold, but when I’m looking for a new phone and you send me a great offer, you have my attention. In other words, untargeted advertising generates far less revenue than a well-timed ad delivered to the right address.

But profiling is what often comes with a nasty taste. 'They' know a lot about us and those cookies are quite persistent. At a cookie wall (the 'wall' that separates you from the information you want to see) most of us quickly click on “yes go ahead” to continue. If you indicate at such a cookie wall that you do not simply agree, then all types of cookies should be disabled by default and you can turn them on one by one if you wish. In addition, you should have the opportunity to reconsider your decision afterwards. You do not give perpetual permission to any website.

So far there is not much going on: you visit webshop A, they know which products you have viewed and will spam you in the near future with advertisements for similar products. But often it doesn't stop at a 1-on-1 relationship. There is a lively trade in profiles. Webshop A sells information about you to other parties. This creates a much broader picture of what you do online. So-called third-party cookies are also used for this: they are not managed by webshop A, but by a third party: advertising companies such as Facebook and Google. These somewhat crumbly cookies are sometimes stored in hidden places, so that they remain behind when you delete your cookies. But they are in a bad light, which is why several browsers have already banned third-party cookies, and even Google is phasing them out this year. Are they shooting themselves in the foot with that? Nope, they just came up with something new that will strengthen their own position in the advertising market and will deal with annoying privacy legislation.

Not only cookies say something about you – the things you put on social media also tells tales about you. Social media therefore read everything you write and make all kinds of connections. This all happens automatically and is used, among other things, to feed you with new information that fits your alley. That way you can become addicted to such a medium – they confirm your behavior and thus become your best friend. This can also lead to tunnel vision. You see this, for example, with conspiracy theorists, who are increasingly presented with similar information and then get stuck in a certain image.

I asked Hans if marketers are people that have no scruples. The average marketer isn't like that, but they don't always realize that offering "sixty thousand cookies" actually means that just as many people are going over the counter. Ultimately, the revenue from the advertising takes precedence over an individual’s privacy. A tip from Hans: with an adblocker in your browser you keep intrusive advertisements at bay.

Once in a while we go shopping across the border. In a German supermarket, we buy American chocolate chip cookies, made in the Netherlands. But nobody else knows that. Not even Google.

This blog post has been translated from Dutch to English by Google and edited by the author.

 

And in the big bad world…

This section contains a selection of news articles I came across in the past week. Because the original version of this blog post is aimed at readers in the Netherlands, it contains some links to articles in Dutch. Where no language is indicated, the article is in English.

• Google delights us with a privacy guide to Chrome.
• lawyers struggle with the term social media. [IN DUTCH]
• the EU and the US are talking about the transfer of personal data again. [IN DUTCH]
• Ministers should also adhere to security guidelines. [IN DUTCH]
• The same goes for mayors. [IN DUTCH]
• Several political parties want ministers to be banned from using private e-mail accounts. [IN DUTCH]
• German police have taken down the world's largest cybercrime platform.
• several housing associations have become victims of ransomware attacks. [IN DUTCH]
• two Belgian airports were fined for taking travelers’ temperatures. [IN DUTCH]
• a lot of people still fall for bank help desk fraud. [IN DUTCH]
• you should always reset smart equipment before sale. [IN DUTCH]
• the minister wants proportional access to encrypted data for investigative services. I am curious how such a crypto algorithm will understand in which situations it should become 'weak'. [IN DUTCH]