IAB Speaks Out on 'Respawned' Cookies

Online ad trade association IAB Europe has warned its members they should not use technology that 'respawns' cookies after consumers have deleted them, calling it unacceptable and probably illegal.

Researchers at UC Berkeley last year discovered 'undead' cookies associated with Adobe's Flash software and created by Internet ratings firm Quantcast and others on online video site Hulu.com; and more recently a lawsuit filed in a California court accused content sharing specialist Clearspring and clients including a Walt Disney subsidiary and Warner Brothers of using Flash cookies to track the actions of children - claims hotly contested by Clearspring.

The Flash cookies not only measure and report users' behaviour even when normal HTTP cookies have been deleted, but can also 'respawn' the HTTP cookies.

IAB Europe underlined that the ability to reject and delete cookies and tracking more generally is an important consumer right. In a statement, the body said re-spawning was 'clearly an unacceptable practice because it circumvents the users' expressed choice not to have that cookie present on their machine' - and suggested that it was illegal under existing European and national EU Member States' Data Protection rules. The association says it will work with its national associations to report and refer cases where re-spawning is found to be taking place.

IAB Europe VP Kimon Zorbas states: 'We work hard to protect lawful business practices across Europe and will not allow individual companies to jeopardise the trust and confidence that our membership has built with their European users.'

The body is online at www.iabeurope.eu .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.