Cookies will pass away, but privacy will not return

Annoying cookies seem to go away. But don’t rejoice too soon because there are better ways of spying.

Plenty of people hate cookies

These are small pieces of code left on our machines by websites. Companies and websites can track you throughout the Internet with their help.

Of course, browsers allow us to remove cookies, but we often forget to sweep these crumbs that follow us through the entire Internet. There have been efforts to persuade the sites not to keep track of us (using the Do Not Track) but it is a tiny step.

The technology of tracking things with cookies is in the past

Internet giants are developing new ways of tracking your online actions, and these systems are way more sophisticated than good old cookies. People who value their privacy will have to deal with as many as three new tracking technologies.

Google

Google is promoting AdID - anonymous identifier for online advertising. The company is currently refraining from any specific comment on this matter, but it seems that every user of Google services will be assigned a unique ID.

Authors from Google believe that these technological improvements can increase your safety while ensuring economic viability.

Facebook

Facebook uses its own system of tracking, not associated with any other ad network. With it help, Facebook may know that you have visited a specific website, which has a Like button. And we all know that there are very few sites without these buttons now. After that, the company can match the information you provided with the data received from Acxiom, and draw a complete and accurate picture of your interests.

Facebook is also testing technologies that can record data on how long a user moves his cursor over a particular part of the website, or what news feeds are displayed on the smart phone display in a certain moment.

This information is then being analyzed and provided to the marketers to define what additional products or services they can offer you.

Microsoft

Microsoft is just going to replace the cookies with a unique user ID. Ad IDs are already implemented in Windows 8.1 and in corresponding Windows Store applications.

According to Microsoft, these IDs are being created for each user and each device. All applications of an individual user on the device have the same advertising ID. Literally, advertisers can now keep track not only of all your Internet actions, but also track what applications you use, when and how you use them.  As a positive side, you can easily disable this AD when installing Windows, or at any time later.

So, why Internet giants need all this?

Firstly, each of the above new methods gives companies more information about the user and provides greater control over data, what, in its turn, allows to attract more advertisers to their ad networks.

Secondly, new technologies from Google and Microsoft allow them to track you even if you are not using a web browser to access the Internet. It is crucial to facilitate the monetization of mobile applications, which often depends on the connection to the Internet but without the explicit use of a web browser.