Delete Cookies, Inflate Net Traffic Estimates

eldavojohn writes "In my browser, I regularly go to the tools menu and clear my private data. This includes my cookies. As a result, people like me who destroy cookies by the thousands may be inflating estimates of Web traffic by up to 150 percent. People have good reasons for clearing out cookies — we've heard about bad cookies before (and I think the FCC is still investigating the issue). But every time you delete cookies, many of the sites you've visited count you as a new visitor next time."

Re:On the other hand...

[dattaway]

and be sure to set your browser to "googlebot"

That way no one has visited but another web spider!

Re:What I do in my computer is my business

[jandrese]

Sure, since neither cookies nor IP addresses are good ways to count traffic you'll start seeing an increase in sites that don't let you do anything until you register. Frankly, this is already happening. I've searched for plenty of technical questions on google that land me on forums that require you to register to even read the posts. This means you have to give them a valid (well long enough for you to get the confirmation) email address and username/password. The worst part is that a lot of times those sites are really slow to send out the email and you're stuck waiting for it to solve your problem. It's obnoxious, but I guess they have to do it since they can't count traffic reliably otherwise...

Re:On the other hand...

[Derek Pomery]

Heh. I do the same thing.
Of course, a site could also try tagging me by serving me a uniquely timestamped file modification date on some piece of server content. Assuming I cache, that'd also serve for tracking.

Isn't like everything is just cookies and IP tracking.

Or heck, SSL session ID makes for short-lived tagging to determine a visitor, as does analysing site access patterns.

Sometimes that's for traffic, though.

[Kadin2048]

I'm sure there are lots of reasons for doing it, but most bulletin boards that require registration in order to read, at least in my experience, do it in order to limit traffic, not count it. It's a way of keeping costs down, albeit at the expense of making the board less useful as a resource to the general public.

Unfortunately the best board relating to Knoppmyth is like this; it was just too expensive for the maintainer to run openly; the traffic cost too much. By requiring registration to read, it cut down on traffic enough to make it affordable. Given the choice between a register-before-reading board and no board at all, I think the public is best served by the former.

Re:On the other hand...

[Goldenhawk]

Hmmm. I wonder if this inflates the apparent popularity of Firefox (not that I consider that a bad thing, mind you).

After all,

1) it's geeks who tend to both use FF *and* block cookies
2) the FF extension architecture makes it easy to use selective cookie blocking tools
3) FF settings allow automatic cookie deletion each time it exits, unlike IE (=IE6, at least)

All in all, I suspect that (*IF* the subject article is accurate) FF users probably account for a disproportionately large chunk of those "re-visits".

I bet M$FT hates that.

Re:Privacy is an illusion

[Anonymous Coward]

I've even heard of a company using the time offset from your computer from your web browser(which passes the time back in milliseconds since 1970, IIRC) and combined with some other methods it really helps you track people down. Not to mention you can combine all this with your IP address and you're pretty good.

I have js disabled, they could still use HTTP caching to measure my clock drift between NTP syncs (daily) if it weren't 1. for network latency and 2. proxies.

IP address,

Proxied

flash version,

None

time offset(if it's possible),

Javascript is disabled and I'm generally using proxies or even X forwarding /VNC from a machine on a different continent.

what plugins are installed via navigator.plugins

None and javascript is disabled so they can't even check

Plenty of people gain from making it appear that privacy is an illusion. That's an illusion in itself, one that a little technical knowledge lets you see right through.

Re:On the other hand...

[rapidweather]

In my livecd linux [geocities.com], based on Knoppix 3.4 (see screenshots, below) I use control scripts for Firefox, Flock and Opera that does several things.
First, if any ~/.flock ~/.mozilla or ~/.opera happens to be in /ramdisk, it deletes the entire ~/.flock, ~/.mozilla, or ~/.opera then installs a new, default one, that I have set up. The browser then displays a local copy (in the cd) of this page:

http://www.geocities.com/rapidweather/web.html [geocities.com]

A default set of RSS feeds is on the Firefox favorites toolbar, the "My News" section of Flock and the "Feeds" section of Opera. They are not the same for each browser, for variety.

Firefox 2.0.0.3:

When the user closes Firefox, or it crashes, a dialog box appears asking "Did you want to close Firefox", with Yes or No choices. Choose Yes, and the control script deletes the ~/.mozilla, and the ~/.fullcircle from /ramdisk and the browser is gone. If the choice is "No" such as in a crash, then the user is presented with a dialog box to restart the browser with the current ~/.mozilla still in place. This can repeat two more times before the user is instructed to start Firefox using the desktop icon, starting from the beginning. Also, the Firefox preferences are set up in the normal way to delete all of the personal information, including cookies, when it's closed. All that would remain in ~/.mozilla is the RSS feed contents, and any changes to the Firefox preferences over and above my defaults during this session. Opera is set up the same way, using a similar control script. This is designed as a high-security setup, for privacy.

Flock uses a control script, but does not have the "multiple restart" feature that Firefox and Opera have.
I found that Flock can keep data even if one sets the browser's preferences to clear everything out, so using the control scripts to remove the entire ~/.flock takes care of that.
If anyone wants to keep cookies, they can use an alternate menu, that does not use a control script, and starts the browser(s) in the normal manner, setting all preferences as they wish. They cannot, then, use the icon to start the browser(s), or the control scripts will delete their ~/.opera, ~/.mozilla, or ~/.flock.
One useful side effect of running a control script in a shell, if the browser "locks up" as can happen on some older machines, and some websites, one can just close the shell, and the browser is gone. That would leave a ~/.mozilla in place, possibly a defective one if a web site caused problems, so that's why I delete any ~/.mozilla found in /ramdisk and start Firefox with a clean slate, when the control script is used.
So, the icon points to the "start_firefox.sh", rather than to the browser itself.

I put three browsers in my livecd linux, I find that Opera is a little lighter on something like a Celeron (Covington) processor, running at 267 MHZ, than the others.

Rapidweather