A cookie is a small file that is put by a web site on a visitor’s hard disk so that the site can remember something about the visitor at a later time.
The State Attorney’s office in Cook County, Chicago is suing internet marketing companies ClearStation and DoubleClick in relation to their practices with cookies. The State Attorney’s office alleges that the companies failed to disclose full details to customers about their use of cookies, including how much detail about a customer’s computer use the cookies compile and transfer to third party advertisers. The lawsuit seeks an end to the practices and a civil penalty of up to $50,000.
Meanwhile, Google’s new toolbar was launched on Monday, available for downloading by users. The company has made an effort to tell users that installing the toolbar will track every site they visit to analyse search and surfing patterns.
However, critics suggest that there is a risk that data could be used to identify individuals, contrary to the claims of Google. Jason Catlett, the president of Junkbusters, a US organisation that campaigns against spam, said that storing a permanent history of the URLs visited according to a unique ID constitutes a privacy risk.
In related news, the internet division of Toys ‘R’ Us is being investigated by New Jersey’s Division of Consumer Affairs over privacy concerns. It is partly the result of a lawsuit that accuses Toysrus.com of sharing personal customer information with market researchers in a manner that is not consistent with its privacy policy, which states that personal information is "completely confidential".