THE IMPLICATIONS OF COOKIES AND INTEGRATED PLATFORMS

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Cookies have benefits and drawbacks. Used properly, they can enhance a visitor’s experience of a Web site. Used carelessly, they can poison a user’s impression of a site and even prompt some users to stay away forever.

All Web site integrated platform designers will eventually face the question of whether and how to use cookies. Often, designers find themselves ill-equipped to make this decision and so they employ cookies haphazardly or without regard for user acceptance or data privacy.

This part of the chapter is for anyone involved in Web site integrated platform design, not just engineers, so it avoids addressing every low-level technical nuance of cookies. Instead, it explores technical considerations, interface design challenges, and (perhaps most importantly) ethical issues.

A Cookie In A Nutshell

When a visitor views a Web page, the server can assign that visitor a unique customer ID, known as a cookie. The server asks the visitor’s browser program to “accept” the cookie—to save the ID number on the visitor’s computer. Then the browser sends the cookie back to the Web server each time the visitor returns to that page, or in some cases, to any page on the Web site.

The ID number tells the server that the visitor has visited the site in the past. The server can use the ID number as a key to store any information the visitor has provided in past visits, or any details it has observed about the visitor’s preferences or browsing behavior. The ID number can save a visitor from having to repeatedly log-in to a members-only site on each visit.

Why Cookies Provoke Controversy

Cookies (like any powerful data-gathering tool) can be abused. Many users fear, sometimes justifiably, that a cookie they accept may allow unscrupulous Web site operators to gather information about them and then use that data in an unauthorized manner. So, these users set their browser software to warn them of each incoming cookie—and many users reject every cookie, without exception.

Note 

Web site integrated platform designers should note this sometimes justified mistrust of cookies, and design accordingly.

Poor Support of Cookies in Browsers

Part of the climate of mistrust surrounding cookies stems from the poor cookie interface provided by current Web browser software. As noted in the preceding, both Netscape and Microsoft browsers can consult users before accepting a cookie, and many users choose to browse with this preference turned on.

Currently, a visitor who rejects a cookie on a Web site integrated platform but continues to browse experiences a relentless barrage of cookie requests. Often, even visitors who accept a cookie are still bombarded by offers of more cookies from the same site. On many sites, this badgering can include multiple cookies per page, cookies that change gratuitously even once accepted, and cookies on pages that don’t even require cookies for any apparent reason.

As feedback from users reaches the designers of browser software, look for browsers to add the following features to help users cope with this overuse of cookies:

• Reject all cookies option

• Better choices when asked

• Cookie management tools

Reject All Cookies Option

Today, browsers present only the annoying false choice between “Accept all cookies without asking” and “Ask about each cookie.” Users should expect to see these choices expanded to include a third “Reject all cookies without asking” option.

Better Choices When Asked

For users who choose notification, browsers should offer a more flexible set of choices regarding what happens after a cookie has been accepted or rejected. Specifically, the user should be able to say “I want to accept/reject this cookie, and then don’t ask me again...”

• About this particular cookie on this Web site integrated platform

• About any cookie on this Web site integrated platform

• About any cookie on this page

Cookie-Management Tools

Finally, expect to see browsers offer a mechanism that lets users view and manage the set of cookies they’ve collected. Certain browsers, such as the most recent release of Microsoft Internet Explorer, have begun to add these or similar cookie-management features. Until a majority of common browsers have incorporated these options, integrated platform designers should plan to minimize the number and type of cookies a visitor encounters on a site.

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