Technical post.
For several years I have used the free analytics services of SiteMeter. Basically, they allow you to analyse how many hits your website receives, and you can look at things like what country people visit from, what web browser they use. There is nothing sinister about such data – it is freely available to the owner of any and every website you visit – it’s in the server logs.
What I didn’t realise is that, starting this March, SiteMeter started using more sophisticated technology, known as a third party tracking cookie.
A bit of background: Basically, if website 1 leaves a cookie on your computer, website 1 can retrieve that cookie. Nothing wrong with that. Only website 1 can do so. That’s how websites like amazon “remember” you from visit to visit. Third party cookies work differently. Website 1 can ask website 3 to leave a cookie on your computer. Website 2 can ask website 3 to leave a cookie on your computer. Assuming website 3 obliges, you end up with a cookie left by website 1 that website 2 can access, and a cookie left by website 2 that website 1 can access. Which means that website 1 can know that you visited website 2, and website 2 can know that you visited website 1. There are several companies on the web that provide just such a “website 3” service.
With the basic server log kind of analytics that Sitemeter used to provide, I could have done that unnerving thing that you get on some websites: “Greetings, visitor from North Carolina”. It makes you go “How did you know?”, but the answer is “Very easily.” With a third-party tracking cookie system in place, I could make you feel really very unnerved. “Greetings, visitor from North Carolina, who has shopped on Amazon three times last month, likes roasting coffee, and does most of your web searching through Yahoo!” Scary.
What is sad is that Sitemeter did not tell their users that they had started to do this. Their own site blog still has no mention of it. The news was broken a while ago by another company, and Sitemeter still have not explained their position publicly on their own site. This is why it took me 3 months to stop using them – I was in the dark. The story is on many blogs, but Michael Sync’s is a good and clear example.
Just for the record, I only used Sitemeter on the website for my fractal generator, Mandelbrot Explorer. I no longer use Sitemeter anywhere. I know use StatCounter, which recently resisted taking money to embark on a third-party cookie collaboration. Mind you – if they change their privacy policy, I’ll take my trade elsewhere again.
Want advice on cookies?...
1. Delete all cookies in your browser from SpecificClick or Sitemeter.
2. Set your browser to block all “3rd party” cookies. The latest versions of IE, Firefox and Opera all have this option.
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