PRIVACY: The Race To Replace The Cookie

A JupiterResearch study recently found nearly 40 percent of web users clear cookies from their machines on a regular basis. The study sent shockwaves through online marketing, analytics and ad technology vendor communities and started the race to build a better cookie. An article today in Clickz introduces us to the the potential of the "Flash cookie."

This is entirely the wrong approach to the cookie problem. For the consumer the issue of cookies and tracking technology is not an inconvenience issue, it is part of a larger online privacy issue. They don't want a technology that embeds itself in their computer and records their behavior as they move about the web. For many consumers this type of "stalk-nology" is akin to rifling through their trash or eavesdropping on a private phone conversation, so they remove it.

Consumers are telling marketers that cookies are unwelcome and by refusing to listen to this loud and clear message the industry is inviting trouble. By trying to out-sneak the consumer with Flash cookies marketers run the risk of driving online customers offline or driving an expensive spy vs. spy subversion technology race. Or worse, they run the risk of inviting Congress to jump into the fray with a reactionary piece of privacy regulation that kills the online marketing industry.

The challenge is to find a solution that leaves marketers and privacy conscious consumers happy, but that isn't going to happen unless marketers invite consumers to the table to help figure it out. A recent DMNews commentary on marketing and privacy by Chet Meisner warns,

“every industry that uses consumer data needs to immediately treat this as a problem to solve, not just an annoyance to overcome. We should rally around the privacy advocates and offer to help them in any way we can.”

The online marketing industry would be wise to understand this and begin the privacy dialogue soon before the consumer backlash begins.