Personally I have never worried about cookies as for the most part they are harmless, but they are a method to track users. I just assume I am being tracked anywhere I go on the web.
But recently I keep seeing something like this on a number of sites:
(Click to enlarge)Okay I know you are placing a cookie on my computer. I already knew this before you started with this obnoxious banner! So being the ornery old lady I am, I now do this:
The folks who put this on their sites are getting it from Google. If you click the ‘More info’ link you get taken to Google’s Privacy & Terms page. At the top of the side menu is Technology and then Advertising. And the truth is revealed. Read it for your self!
Privacy and Terms/Advertising
Then there is ‘UClick’.
According to this banner they use a cookie to ‘get you the best experience on our website’. I fail to see how collecting information about a view to one of their sites is going to make the experience any better, all I see is they are collecting information to share with other sites, basically to do with your details as they see fit.
Universal Uclick Privacy Policy
This page is a bit long and I suspect they count on folks not bothering to read it all, but again, nothing they say here is really going to benefit the user, just the site owner and/or affiliates.
I know we are being tracked everywhere we go on the web. I don’t knowingly go to sites that are not what I would choose. But my information can be shared, sold or given to any number of other sites.
Keep in mind, nothing is or almost nothing is really free any more. We the consumers are the product, not the websites, free utilities or most advertised free stuff.
