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Technology Can You Have Your Cookies and Eat (or Delete) Them, Too?

ABA: “Until recently, a “cookie” was just a popular baked treat commonly consumed with milk. Since the dawn of the internet, however, the term has taken on a different meaning, namely that of a small text file that is automatically stored on a user’s web browser when viewing a particular website. Although initially intended as a means to track transaction-specific information for short periods—such as the items in an online shopping cart—there is nothing inherent in the technology that limits a cookie to mere transitory use. Cookies can remain on a user’s computer for weeks or months and, in doing so, can enable the long-term tracking of the user’s internet browsing activity. This capability is of great commercial value to advertisers, but the fact that advertisers might be able to determine all the websites that one has visited in the previous month—or even the previous year—has drawn attention from certain regulators and lawmakers…”

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