The first question that need to be addressed is very straight forward - whether cookies could harm user or device directly, and the answer seems to be simple: no, they are not able to cause any harm on their own. While cookies actually may carry a computer virus, there is no possibility to execute it and therefore user's device could not be infected directly from cookie (Kaspersky, n.d.). However, saving data without user's control on their devices poses serious privacy issue that has to be further regulated by both legislation and ICT standards.
Since 2018 EU and UK residents are protected by GDPR: General Data Protection Regulations. Among other issues the new law namely addressing issues related to cookies, regulating and protecting consumer's rights in this area. However, possibilities of enforcing GDPR are limited. According to different statistics from 51% to 74% websites in EEA failed surface compliance tests. Despite all efforts the law itself is not really consumer-friendly at this point, leaving web applications' users with intrusive cookie consent pop-ups. It would be prudent to consider GDPR at this moment causes more harm or disruption than actually protecting consumers.
Cookies are essential for authentication, however this could be considered the biggest advantage and disadvantage at the same time. While being a powerful tool, they are prone to be captured and misused. Their ability to easily establish identity of the user is especially risky within companies serving their cookies over numerous websites, such as website development businesses or website components owners, such as social plug-ins. Having access to vast number of users and ability to track them across numerous websites allowing precise user profiling (Orlandi, 2014).
References:
Orlandi, F., 2014. Profiling user interests on the social semantic web. ACM SIGWEB Newsletter, (Spring).
Kaspersky, n.d. What are Cookies?. [online] www.kaspersky.com. Available at: <https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/cookies> [Accessed 28 April 2022].
Since 2018 EU and UK residents are protected by GDPR: General Data Protection Regulations. Among other issues the new law namely addressing issues related to cookies, regulating and protecting consumer's rights in this area. However, possibilities of enforcing GDPR are limited. According to different statistics from 51% to 74% websites in EEA failed surface compliance tests. Despite all efforts the law itself is not really consumer-friendly at this point, leaving web applications' users with intrusive cookie consent pop-ups. It would be prudent to consider GDPR at this moment causes more harm or disruption than actually protecting consumers.
Cookies are essential for authentication, however this could be considered the biggest advantage and disadvantage at the same time. While being a powerful tool, they are prone to be captured and misused. Their ability to easily establish identity of the user is especially risky within companies serving their cookies over numerous websites, such as website development businesses or website components owners, such as social plug-ins. Having access to vast number of users and ability to track them across numerous websites allowing precise user profiling (Orlandi, 2014).
References:
Orlandi, F., 2014. Profiling user interests on the social semantic web. ACM SIGWEB Newsletter, (Spring).
Kaspersky, n.d. What are Cookies?. [online] www.kaspersky.com. Available at: <https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/cookies> [Accessed 28 April 2022].
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