Re:Cookie Warning Shenanigans Have Got to Stop
by gowld on Wednesday March 13, 2019 @05:26PM
(#19384016)
That's not quite right.
On the web, your approximate unique ID is your browser fingerprint. That can be used to join your activity to other activity.
Your session cookie is your activity for your browsing session (or for users who never quit their browser, your entire computer uptime).
Think about it -- a cookie is information the web server gives to you; it's essentially a bookmark to your current position in the app. The server already knows where you were -- it saw you there!; it just doesn't know that you want to go back there on your next HTTP request.
Tracking data is data you give to the web server. Cookies are only one primitive to enable tracking. Cookies can be replicated by URL query parameters, subject to size constraints.
On the web, your approximate unique ID is your browser fingerprint. That can be used to join your activity to other activity. Your session cookie is your activity for your browsing session (or for users who never quit their browser, your entire computer uptime).
Think about it -- a cookie is information the web server gives to you; it's essentially a bookmark to your current position in the app. The server already knows where you were -- it saw you there!; it just doesn't know that you want to go back there on your next HTTP request.
Tracking data is data you give to the web server. Cookies are only one primitive to enable tracking. Cookies can be replicated by URL query parameters, subject to size constraints.