Zombie Cookies Privacy Lawsuit Targets Net Giants

[no1_vern]

Privacy Lawsuit Targets Net Giants Over ‘Zombie’ Cookies | Threat Level | Wired.com

By Ryan Singel July 27, 2010 | 4:06 pm

A wide swath of the net’s top websites, including MTV, ESPN, MySpace, Hulu, ABC, NBC and Scribd, were sued in federal court Friday on the grounds they violated federal computer intrusion law by secretly using storage in Adobe’s Flash player to re-create cookies deleted by users.

At issue is technology from Quantcast, also targeted in the lawsuit. Quantcast created Flash cookies that track users across the web, and used them to re-create traditional browser cookies that users deleted from their computers. These “zombie” cookies came to light last year, after researchers at UC Berkeley documented deleted browser cookies returning to life. Quantcast quickly fixed the issue, calling it an unintended consequence of trying to measure web traffic accurately.

Flash cookies are used by many of the net’s top websites for a variety of purposes, from setting default volume levels on video players to assigning a unique ID to users that tracks them no matter what browser they use. (Disclosure: The last time we reported on this issue, we found that Wired.com used one to set video preferences.)

The lawsuit (.pdf), filed in U.S. district court in San Francisco, asks the court to find that the practice violated eavesdropping and hacking laws, and that the practice of secretly tracking users also violated state and federal fair trade laws. The lawsuit alleges a “pattern of covert online surveillance” and seeks status as a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed by Joseph Malley, a privacy activist lawyer who also played key roles in other high profile privacy lawsuits, including a $9.5 million settlement earlier this year from Facebook over its ill-fated Beacon program and a settlement with Netflix after the company gave imperfectly anonymized data to contestants in a movie recommendation contest.

“The objective of this scheme was the online harvesting of consumers’ personal information for Defendants’ use in online marketing activities,” wrote Malley, who called the technique “as simple as it was deceptive and devious.”

Unlike traditional browser cookies, Flash cookies are relatively unknown to web users, and they are not controlled through the cookie privacy controls in a browser. That means even if a user thinks they have cleared their computer of tracking objects, they most likely have not.

Do you think you have deleted all the tracking cookies on your computers? Guess again!

[stroyal]

So dose anybody know how to delete these.

Maybe we don't need Adobe, I'm sick of it trying to update 10 times a day.

[Taxmancometh]

Benn using this for awhile...

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623/

Pandora uses flash so I protect that folder.

If you use Ccleaner, you need to make sure that registry path is protect from deletion as well.

[stroyal]

How come Firefox doesn't like it?

I get a red circle, with a line through it.

Edit
Never mind

[stroyal]

I had 256 of those pieces of crap.
I don't think I have ever been to any of the sights mentioned.
It must be more widespread.

Thanks, to both of you.

[RacerX]

Benn using this for awhile...

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623/

Pandora uses flash so I protect that folder.

If you use Ccleaner, you need to make sure that registry path is protect from deletion as well.

Agreed. been using Better privacy for a long time works great.
I use it with Cookie Culler. protect the cookies i want for places i want to auto login too, and it deletes the rest automatically.

[stroyal]

In 3 computers checked so far, I had over 1100 zombies.
I know they are only cookies, but marketing cookies, just piss me off.

I'm pretty good about not getting viruses, and malware.
Other than finding them on scans, I haven't had a computer infected in 15 years.Maybe.

I'm still never sure if something is lurking, that can't be found.

[Taxmancometh]

You almost have to Internet with a live disk anymore.

Stay paranoid, but sane.

[Taxmancometh]

Agreed. been using Better privacy for a long time works great.
I use it with Cookie Culler. protect the cookies i want for places i want to auto login too, and it deletes the rest automatically.

I'll have to check that out. Description is a little vague for me and there are no pics.

My cookie policy is to not except any by default unless I need them. Then I enable cookies and set "allow" for that site and disable the cookie permissions once again. So the next time I visit eBay for example, the cookie permission is to allow from eBay. (And they use a lot!) Have to be careful because some sites won't function properly without a cookie, and you have to remember to temporally allow cookies. One thing I noticed about Youtube is that even when you have the option to allow all of Youtube's cookies, the damn videos still error. So your stuck with having to enable accept cookies so that the site is satisfied. Maybe it's because the site can't change data in the cookies you allow, or it's cross site stuff going on behind the scenes. Whatever the reason, if cookies are completing prevented despite the accept permission, Youtube won't work. Sometimes it will, but no always.