Bye, Bye Cookie: Microsoft Plots Its Own Tracking Technology to Span Desktop, Mobile, Xbox

Microsoft is set to become the latest tech giant to develop its own tracking technology to replace the ubiquitous "cookie," which has become the focus of regulators and privacy advocates.

Google is similarly plotting its own cookie replacement, and others such as Facebook, Apple and Amazon are expected to pounce on the third-party cookie's vulnerability. The technology has served as the foundation for targeted online advertising by enabling browsing behavior to be tracked across sites and used to target ads. However third-party cookies are limited in that they cannot track mobile devices, which account for 20% of global web traffic, according to Statcounter.

Microsoft's cookie replacement would essentially be a device identifier, meaning consumers could give permission for its advertising use when opting in to a device's regular user agreement or terms of service. Microsoft would then become directly responsible for users' data and -- assuming it doesn't share it with third parties -- confine privacy concerns to the Redmond, Wash.-based company rather than countless companies that currently collect data on people's browsing behaviors.

[link to adage.com]

Last Edited by UnReal on 10/10/2013 04:43 PM