[wordup] Frenzy Begins Over Cookie Alternative

[Adam Shand]

I don't think I can sum up what I think of this better then:

> JupiterResearch study recently found nearly 40 percent of Web users 
> clear these text files from their machines on a regular basis. Because 
> of the enormous consequences of cookie deletion for online marketing, 
> analytics experts and ad technology vendors have since begun overtly 
> addressing the potential of the "Flash cookie."

<shudder> ... as the guy that forwarded this to me said, this sounds 
like a freaking security alert, not a product announcement.  Bend over 
and prepare to take it from the man (you'll like it too because it'll 
come in 6,458,345 colours *and* show pretty animations).

Adam.

From: http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3494101

Frenzy Begins Over Cookie Alternative

By Zachary Rodgers | March 31, 2005

An existing technology offering cookie-like functionality is gaining 
attention from publishers, marketers and others as a possible 
replacement for the ubiquitous, but potentially endangered, text files.

The technology, based on Macromedia's Flash, is getting attention as 
awareness spreads of an apparent increase in user deletion of cookies. 
A JupiterResearch study recently found nearly 40 percent of Web users  
clear these text files from their machines on a regular basis. Because 
of the enormous consequences of cookie deletion for online marketing, 
analytics experts and ad technology vendors have since begun overtly 
addressing the potential of the "Flash cookie."

The technology is based on a feature of Flash MX called "local shared 
objects" (SOs), which can easily be placed on a user's machine by 
adding a piece of Javacript to a Web page. SOs are similar to cookies 
in concept and function. The main difference is Web users don't know 
what SOs are, and are therefore unlikely to delete them. Additionally, 
commercial anti-spyware applications do not typically block these 
files, as they do cookies.

Among those discussing the potential of SOs to identify returning Web 
users is Eric Peterson, the JupiterResearch analyst behind the cookie 
deletion study.

"It's feasible," Peterson said of the technology. "Local shared objects 
[are] baked into the most current release of Flash MX. It provides, via 
Javascript, the ability to communicate between the Web application and 
the visitor's [browser]."

In fact, the Flash cookie can store a much wider range of information 
in a user's browser than the traditional cookie, according to John 
Quarto-vonTivadar, CTO of Future Now Inc. and co-chair of the Web 
Analytics Association's technology committee.

"SO's can store many orders of magnitude more information than a cookie 
can and are also not affected by browser settings but by the Flash 
player settings," said Quarto-vonTivadar.

"Most people aren't familiar with how to tweak their Flash browser, 
though I suspect that would change over time," he added.

At least one ad technology firm is already testing marketing 
applications of the Flash cookie.

United Virtualities, a vendor of rich media technology, is today 
expected to introduce a product that employs SOs for user tracking 
purposes. The company's platform is called PIE, which stands for 
Persistent Identification Element. For use of the platform, UV charges 
a .03 CPM.

"What we have done is made SOs very easy and practical to use," said 
Mookie Tenembaum, the company's chief executive. "What it does is make 
the cookie persistent. If they use the PIE system, it's a Javascript 
tag they put on the page, then the cookies are never erased for 
purposes of identification."

Tenembaum added, "Instead of cookies now you have a pie."

Jupiter's Peterson wouldn't speculate about the value of such a 
product, which manages SOs that support ad campaigns on publisher and 
network sites. Neither would he explicitly endorse using SOs for this 
purpose, out of fear that widespread use could result in a consumer 
privacy backlash.

"For companies that can independently verify that cookie deletion is a 
problem, it's certainly worth exploring," said JupiterResearch's 
Peterson. "I don't go so far as to recommend using it, because it's one 
of those great unknowns. As good as I feel pointing out this technology 
flaw, I would feel really bad if Macromedia [was compelled to withdraw 
the capability]."

Interestingly, SOs owe their existence in part to the cookie. 
Macromedia initially added them to Flash MX so developers of Flash 
movies and applications could identify and obtain data on returning 
users without cookies, which were awkward to integrate with Flash. That 
the technology could end up replacing the cookie did not seem likely at 
the time.

Macromedia appears somewhat wary about the use of SOs for tracking 
online behavior, particularly for marketing purposes. The company has 
issued a statement advising Web users on how to disable the automatic 
placement of SOs on their machines.