How do Cookies affect the individual and the community?
Crumbly cookies; a chip description.
Cookies are files downloaded to a user's computer which stores tracking information about their usage on the website.
What regulations are in place around cookies?
Regulations regarding cookies are often put in place by countries, while the largest regulation is the GDPR, General Data Protection Regulation, a regulation by the EU. These regulations only apply to use of cookies in countries within the EU, but many companies follow them even outside these countries.
- Receive consent from the user before downloading cookies.
- Give clear information about the cookies.
- Download only the minimum of what the cookies specify.
- Allow users do access and delete cookie information.
- Not have Cookie Walls, which are restrictions to the website due to the user refusing to accept cookies.
The regulations in the GDPR specify that websites must:
Other countries and regulations include the US, where there are only laws that restrict the use of cookies and are only state-to-state. Canada has the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, PIPEDA, and after Brexit, the UK introduced its own regulations like the GDPR. Australia has the Privacy Act, which are not as strict as the GDPR.
A well-known allegation against Meta, formerly Facebook, is that they track users outside of their platforms, like listening to the microphone for what you want, and sell this to advertisers on their platforms.
How are cookies leveraged by companies, and sold to advertisers?
Companies track user data for multiple reasons, such as improving their services and advertising. Every time users enter a new website, they must be prompted with an “Accept cookies” pop-up, which also must inform the user of the usage of their cookies.
Websites can track the usage patterns on their sites and try to improve their services based on these patterns. An example might be that users always enter the search bar to find their profile, so maybe they should make the profile button easier to see.
Advertisers are also interested in showing their products to the right audience, and target group. A way to receive these target groups is by buying tracking patterns from companies and websites that track such, like cookies. Companies are also happy to sell their information for profit.
Many regulations allow selling cookies to advertisers if they clearly inform their users at the “accept cookies” pop-up. In the case someone does not want their data sold, they must reject those cookies, but many people forget this. This is why it is important for everyone to read these pop-ups.
AI x Cookies
Selling cookies to advertisers increase their profit, and there might be a new player to this business, Artificial Intelligence, or AI. Computing and finding patterns in usage data and connecting that to what people want to buy is easy to estimate approximately, but very difficult to do perfectly. This is where AI comes in. AI can scan and look at data in a new way that no other computer algorithm could have done before, and with LLMs, or Large Language Models, they can be exponentially fine-tuned by looking at sales-improvements.
The positive side of this is in the perspective of the business. With AI-powered advertising, you could increase sales by finding the right target group and make personalized advertisements.
The downside of this is in the perspective of the individual. Personalized advertisements raise ethical questions related to privacy regulations.
