New Technique for Tracking Web Site Visitors 590
bigtallmofo writes "According to Jupiter Research, 58% of web surfers deleted cookies from their system in 2004. This has sent a loud message to marketers in regard to consumer's preference as to tracking their online activities. The marketers have responded with PIE. Persistent Identification Element (PIE) is a technology that uses Macromedia's Flash MX to track you even without using cookies. Macromedia has created a page to instruct users on how to disable this."
Firefox plugin? (Score:5, Funny)
Does firefox have a plugin that reminds me to either put clothes on or turn off my camera before loading a flash plugin?
I'd delete them too (Score:2, Funny)
Homer Simpson (Score:5, Funny)
And... (Score:5, Funny)
I still won't load plugins into my browser, even if they offer the feature of being able to track me better.
Just as well then... (Score:5, Funny)
I have the Register to thank for this as their story pages are unreadable with Flash enabled due to haveing THREE flaming animations running at a time.
TWW
those creative IT guys.. (Score:5, Funny)
sheesh what's next.. cake?
-SJ53
What a despicable waste! (Score:4, Funny)
Over half of all web users' cookies? That would be enough cookies to feed the populations of Africa and India for, like, decades.
Say no to Cookies and PIE (Score:5, Funny)
PRON (Score:5, Funny)
If you think cookies and pie are evil (Score:1, Funny)
Dear Slashdot (Score:4, Funny)
To aid your visitor tracking, here is today's log of my Slashdot visits:
Log on,
Letter
Let them TRY to get to me... (Score:5, Funny)
99% of the time I bail before Flash has time to load .
Re:Firefox plugin? (Score:5, Funny)
Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the "flash" plugin?
I think Flash is great.! (Score:3, Funny)
I have uninstalled flash. When I see the little ``puzzle piece'', I know that I've found a site that isn't worth visiting, so Flash is a great time saver for me.
Re:Not actively deleting cookies (Score:5, Funny)
In that context, the "39% of users" and "once a month" actually sounds very conservative. I wonder where they got their figures?
The irony is that deleting cookies after the fact is not a very good privacy measure -- the people who planted them have already had a good chance to track your usage. It's much more effective to set your browser not to provide cookie information except to the originating site.
In other words, the whole cookie issue is just plain bogus.
Bill Hicks put it best (Score:4, Funny)
No this is not a joke, you're going, "there's going to be a joke coming," there's no fucking joke coming. You are Satan's spawn filling the world with bile and garbage. You are fucked and you are fucking us. Kill yourself. It's the only way to save your fucking soul, kill yourself. Planting seeds. I know all the marketing people are going, "he's doing a joke"... there's no joke here whatsoever. Suck a tail-pipe, fucking hang yourself, borrow a gun from a friend - I don't care how you do it. Rid the world of your evil fucking machinations. I know what all the marketing people are thinking right now too, "Oh, you know what Bill's doing, he's going for that anti-marketing dollar. That's a good market, he's very smart." Oh man, I am not doing that. You fucking evil scumbags! "Ooh, you know what Bill's doing now, he's going for the righteous indignation dollar. That's a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation. We've done research - huge market. He's doing a good thing." Godammit, I'm not doing that, you scum-bags! Quit putting a godamm dollar sign on every fucking thing on this planet!
"Ooh, the anger dollar. Huge. Huge in times of recession. Giant market, Bill's very bright to do that." God, I'm just caught in a fucking web! "Ooh the trapped dollar, big dollar, huge dollar. Good market - look at our research. We see that many people feel trapped. If we play to that and then separate them into the trapped dollar..." How do you live like that? And I bet you sleep like fucking babies at night, don't you?"
more porn sites (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Firefox plugin? (Score:4, Funny)
Does firefox have a plugin that reminds me to either put clothes on or turn off my camera before loading a flash plugin?
Hey, if someone wants to go to all that effort to see me naked, it's fine with me. Just so we're clear that I will *not* be paying for any therapy that may be required afterward.
Awesome opportunities! (Score:5, Funny)
2) Create paid-subscription-only amateur pics website
3) The best thing is you don't need a "???" step to profit. And the incoming part is tax-free, because the organization you create to teach teen girls to do their breast self-examination is not for profit...
Re:Firefox plugin? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:those creative IT guys.. (Score:5, Funny)
sheesh what's next.. cake?
Possible. But I'll be my money on FUDge.
I love targetted advertising (Score:5, Funny)
I wish I all advertising was "targetted" so I could promptly register myself as a 113 year old hermaphrodite with no money. Ethnic group? Hittite. Hobbies? Collecting dried cicadas. If you can ever find a dried cicada commercial site, feel free to place an ad link to it on any page I visit. Convicted felon, too, with no voting rights (to avoid political spam as well). Then I could sit back and watch all the spam and popups roll in: all 0 of them.
That is the dumbest thing I've heard all day.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Homer Simpson (Score:2, Funny)
"When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if it's not, mmmmmmm, boy!" -- J. Handey
Re:Not actively deleting cookies (Score:3, Funny)
wait wait wait...so you would execute dangerous code if trust the source?
Re:those creative IT guys.. (Score:2, Funny)
Cookies become CAKE if you turn on the proper security levels and warning options. Since it is dependent upon the user's settings, it is considered to be CUP-CAKE (Custom User Permissions based Client-Authorized Knowledge Extraction). However, it seems that PIE is not required to be CAKE, since there is no technical requirement to warn the user.
Re:I love targetted advertising (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks (Score:4, Funny)
Thanks. You're a real pal. Now I know why every single page I visit contains either a flash ad with William Shatner waving Doritos, or from a company with a service that stops basement floods.
Re:I love targetted advertising (Score:3, Funny)
Cicada Mania be just whta you need. [cicadamania.net]
Re:Censored or Mindfucked? What's better? (Score:5, Funny)
Well, I'm the next guy, and it's pretty clear to me that you don't. Deleting cookies and avoiding ads has become kind of a sport for me. I clear 'em out as soon as I'm done with a site or very shortly thereafter; it takes about 2 seconds. You've got my (dynamic) IP address, and that's all you're going to get.
Re:Simple answer (Score:2, Funny)