- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
- Padres pitcher Musgrove needs elbow surgery
- Supreme Court lets stand rules to curb mercury, methane emissions
- Boston beat Denver in NBA exhibition season opener, but Jokic says omens are good
- Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate
- Biden says 'not confident' of peaceful US election
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- Lukaku stars as Napoli beat Como to hold Serie A top spot
- Ohtani set for MLB playoff debut as Dodgers face Padres
- Pogba's drug ban cut to 18 months from four years
- Devine leads New Zealand to big win over India in Women's T20 World Cup
- Bosnia floods kill 16 people
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Prosecutors seek dismissal of rape charges against French rugby players
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- Bolivia's Morales says claims he raped a minor are a 'lie'
- MLB Reds hire two-time champion Francona as manager
- Daniel Maldini receives first Italy call-up for Nations League
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- Ancelotti points finger at Madrid's 'lack of intensity'
- Haiti reeling after 70 killed in gang attack
- Five Czech kids in hospital over TikTok 'piercing challenge'
- What happens next in Iran-Israel conflict?
- Country star Garth Brooks denies rape accusations
- Stubbs hits maiden century as South Africa make 343-4 against Ireland
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Odegaard injury has forced Arsenal to be 'different', says Arteta
- Ratcliffe refuses to guarantee Ten Hag's Man Utd future
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Mauritius to hold legislative election on November 10
- Britain qualify for America's Cup final after 60-year wait
- IMF asks Sri Lanka to protect hard-won gains
- Morata returns to Spain Nations League squad after injury
- Irish regulator to probe Ryanair use of facial recognition
- Public allowed to see video evidence in France mass rape trial
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- Under-fire Ten Hag 'together' with Man Utd hierarchy
- Guardiola talks of Man City love affair as financial hearing rumbles on
- De Bruyne out of Belgium Nations League squad
- Japanese trainer Yahagi hopes Shin Emperor achieves 50-year-old Arc dream
- UK's Starmer hails 'landmark' carbon capture funding
- As EU targets Chinese cars, European rivals sputter
- Bosnia floods kill 14 people
- Tennis world number one Swiatek splits with coach Wiktorowski
- Liverpool share responsibility for Nunez goal drought, says Slot
- Top EU court finds against FIFA in key transfer market ruling
- Top seed Sabalenka stunned by Muchova in Beijing last eight
- Tsitsipas gets revenge against Nishikori at Shanghai Masters
Web-tracking 'cookies' meant to protect privacy: inventor
The data-tracking "cookies" at the heart of concerns over online privacy were meant to shield people, rather than serve as cyber snoops, their inventor told AFP.
California-based engineer and entrepreneur Lou Montulli said the original "cookie" he created decades ago was intended to make life online easier by letting websites remember visitors.
Yet the technology has become a lightning rod, attacked for helping tech companies collect data on consumers' habits key to the targeted web ad business that makes many billions of dollars per year.
"My invention is at the technological heart of many of the advertising schemes, but it was not intended to be so," said Montulli, who created them in 1994 while an engineer at Netscape.
"It is simply a core technology to enable the web to function," he said.
Google joined a growing list of tech companies this week by announcing a new plan to block certain types of cookies, after the online ad giant's previous proposals were roundly criticized.
When discussing his invention, Montulli said the software snippets that let a website recognize individuals helped make possible features such as automatic log-ins or remembering the contents of e-commerce shopping carts.
Without what are called "first-party" cookies -- which also are used by websites to interact directly with visitors -- every time a person went online, they would be treated as though it were their first time.
But Montulli pointed to trouble with so-called "third-party" cookies, those generated by websites and tucked into visitors' browsers, and ad networks that aggregate data from those snippets.
"It is only through collusion between many websites and an ad network that ad tracking is allowed to happen," Montulli argued.
Websites share activity data with ad networks, which then use it to target ads for all their members.
- Online ads arms race -
"If you search on some strange niche product and then you get bombarded with ads for that product at a number of websites, that is a weird experience," Montulli said.
"It is normal human pattern recognition to think if they know I was looking for blue suede shoes, they must know everything about me; then think I want to get out of this."
Governments have taken notice, with the latest consequence being French authorities fining Google and Facebook 210 million euros ($237 million) this month over their use of cookies.
If one website in a network also collects personally identifying information about a user, say a name or email, that could be "leaked" in a way that enables a browser to be associated with a person.
"It's a network effect of all these different websites colluding together with the ad trackers," Montulli said. "Cookies were originally designed to provide privacy."
He said one possible response would be to stop targeting ads and start charging subscriptions for online services, which run on online advertising revenue.
Montulli also supports phasing out third-party cookies, but warned getting rid of the software snippets altogether would drive advertisers to employ more stealthy tactics.
"Advertising will find a way," he said. "It will become a technological arms race; considering the billions of dollars at risk, the ad industry will do what they need to keep the lights on."
Turning off third-party cookies could also unintentionally punish small websites by shutting them out of targeted ads that make money, giving even more power to tech giants such as Apple, Google and Facebook-parent Meta.
Regulation that keeps cookies in use, mandating controls such as letting users opt in or out of sharing data, may be the only viable long-term solution, Montulli said.
"You really couldn't use the web without cookies," he said. "But, we are going to need to be more nuanced about how they are used in advertising."
M.Carneiro--PC