Cookie and Do not track

LightKnow

Hi am hoping this hasn't been covered before 😅 I couldn't find my answer soo here I am again 
Mobile device and desktop run similar cookies method
So cookies are there to make user experience better and collect information that could be beneficial and or harmful.?.. How far can cookies go in terms of cross sites ? Basically this gonna sound stupid but i prefer not to mix my personal stuff with work.. so for e.g after using Twitter I decide to log on to work site or agency site etc and if they collect social media data... Would this share my personal Twitter information inform of cookies ? Or is that not how it works ? 
Also if you tick do not track on browser ; does this do mutch ? If so to what extent
Lastly I thought sites were not allowed collect biometric data anymore? If they are .. what's the point of collecting data such as ... Finger print , face id , voice etc 

tafelmoneysaver

Here's a good place to start: http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/guides/about-cookies

[Deleted User]

Biil said:

So cookies are there to make user experience better and collect information that could be beneficial and or harmful.?.. 

Yes, beneficial - could be when sites remember you have visited previously, personalise the presentation, remember your session to save you logging in, keep items in you basket on a shopping site etc all very useful.

Harmful - Probably not. They can't infect computers with viruses or other malware. Very rare, but some cyberattacks can hijack cookies and enable access to your browsing sessions but that isn't a problem with cookies, that's a problem with your browsing habits and getting malware / adware on your device.

Biil said:

How far can cookies go in terms of cross sites ? 

Third party cookies from advertisers can be used by different websites if the share they same 3rd party advertisers / data aggregators.

Biil said:

Basically this gonna sound stupid but i prefer not to mix my personal stuff with work.. so for e.g after using Twitter I decide to log on to work site or agency site etc and if they collect social media data... Would this share my personal Twitter information inform of cookies ? Or is that not how it works ? 

Well the work / agency website can't see that you re-tweeted Don Trump 10 mins ago when you were on Twitter. However an advertiser that use the same 3rd party data sharing on both Twitter and your agency website can see aggregated data that can show you've been on Twitter and may share some relevant information that they can use to push more relevant advertising on your agency website to you to make some money - you might get an advert for a MAGA t-shirt but the employer / agency aren't seeing that data, just the advertisers. Work website - eg a corporate website - I'm not sure what you mean but probably doesn't use advertisers and 3rd party cookies so probably doesn't share anything.

Biil said:

Also if you tick do not track on browser ; does this do much ? If so to what extent

It sends a marker in your HTTP request that says "do not track". Whether the website bothers to take any notice is up to them, no law or regulations around it so it isn't clear how useful it really is.

Biil said:

Lastly I thought sites were not allowed collect biometric data anymore? If they are .. what's the point of collecting data such as ... Finger print , face id , voice etc 

Are you getting mixed up with "fingerprinting" which is used by most digital marketing and advertising? This is simply trying to identify you for targeting advertising based on your browser / IP address / screen resolution in the absence of a cookie.

In terms of biometric data, any website that want's to access you fingerprint scanner, camera or microphone will require permission through your browser. They never send your actual fingerprint, a local authentication occurs in your PC/Phone etc that confirms you are who you say you are. Camera / microphone - they can't collect this unless you grant permission for a website / app to access your camera / microphone. It is know that some apps monitor the microphone when the app isn't in use for sneaky advertising purposes, some even utilise the speaker to send ultrasound as well so that other nearby devices with their microphone on can pick it up - thereby linking the presence of devices together for more sophisticated targeted advertising.

In summary, it really is this is all about advertising revenue, nobody really give two hoots about what you've tweeted or what celeb you've been looking at in a bikini, they just want to give you an advert that they think is relevant to you so you will click it and buy something.

a_car_person

On the biometrics thing on a phone I don’t see how biometric data even gets in the web. On an iPhone (no clue about Android, sorry) biometric data is stored in a ‘secure enclave’ on the phone being no-one has access to it and could read it therefore it could not be tracked.

a_car_person

Also if you are running the latest iOS 14.5 (again no idea on Android) you can get a privacy report to see which sites are trying to track you. Click the Aa on Safari and then Privacy Report

LightKnow

Thanks everyone for all the information, Very helpful read
Just last thing, when you clear history data with cookies in browser, does that remove it or does it still sit on the system ?

wongataa

Biil said:

Thanks everyone for all the information, Very helpful read
Just last thing, when you clear history data with cookies in browser, does that remove it or does it still sit on the system ?

It deletes it from the system.

coffeehound

[Deleted User] said: It is know that some apps monitor the microphone when the app isn't in use for sneaky advertising purposes, some even utilise the speaker to send ultrasound as well so that other nearby devices with their microphone on can pick it up - thereby linking the presence of devices together for more sophisticated targeted advertising.

My goodness, that is scary and impressive at the same time.  Slightly off-topic but Imperial college investigated some IoT products from China and found a webcam that transmitted everything to an IP in China, and a robot vacuum cleaner that similarly transmitted room layout geo data back to the motherland.  Why we still do any business with them I do not know.

forgotmyname

Been trying to tell someone to stop deleting cookies when they keep moaning that a website keeps getting them to
do captures which they struggle with.

They are not dangerous if you don't visit dodgy sites and take up a tiny amount of room/ Over 3000 in the space of a

single 16MP picture saved as jpg?

coffeehound

They do slow the browser down, though.  I like Safari's setting where it deletes after 30 days.

[Deleted User]

coffeehound said:

They do slow the browser down, though.  I like Safari's setting where it deletes after 30 days.

Do they really slow the browser down though?

I can't say I've noticed a slow down and I've never deleted a single cookie from Google chrome since I last re-installed Windows on this PC in November last year - the cookies file is just 3MB and holds over 3,000 cookies - Chrome stores them in a database format for fast access.



If anything, probably speeds things up for me because I don't get the "Accept cookies" pop ups that I have to click on for sites that I have previously visited.