By Daniel Opasinis
Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) students may be unaware of the consequences that come with accepting cookies online as experts warn of the potential threats with personal data collection.
Alex Ferworn, a professor of computer science at TMU, explained that cookies are strings of information that websites store within your device. “If you visit that website again, it will know that you will have actually visited [it before], and often what you looked at previously,” he explained.
Ferworn warned that underestimating the impact of these cookie agreements could have deeper consequences.
“Your momentary joy of receiving a version of an ad might seem like it’s personalized to you…might be wonderful,” he said. “But that interaction kind of exists forever, without you being able to do anything about it.”
A study published in HCI in Business, Government and Organizations, found that “binary choice cookies”— cookie pop-ups with a “yes or no” selection option—are accepted by 93.1 per cent of desktop users.
Second-year business technology management student, Rahaima Aqil, ran into cookie pop-ups while researching for an essay. “Sometimes I go on [a website] and it won’t let me browse until I accept,” she said.
Aqil shared that she’s generally worried about how her data could be used but finds the situation unavoidable. “As much as you try to protect yourself, something’s bound to happen,” she said.
Ferworn explained that students’ consistent internet usage can prove to involve risk, due to information gathering from websites.
“The biggest thing for students is probably to try and maintain their privacy,” he said.
According to the Government of Canada’s website, cookies can be used maliciously to steal your sensitive information and can even be malware—disguised as a harmless pop-up.
Ferworn also emphasized how cookies can isolate students from content that they may not agree with, creating an echo chamber for internet users. Since cookies tailor a user’s online experience based on their activity, Ferworn warned that differences in the content consumption of internet users can create real-life division.
“You’re talking to somebody and they have a completely different experience. You’re intended to have a completely different experience. In fact, you’re told two completely different things,” he said.
“You wonder why you think your friend is crazy and your friend thinks you’re crazy. It’s not something that brings us together. It’s a divisive technology.”
Kami Vaniea, a professor of computer engineering at the University of Waterloo, considers cookies a “privacy-positive” compared to other options of data gathering. “Their goal [is] to allow a user to maintain state—to do things like have a shopping cart that stayed with them between pages—so they didn’t have to log in again,” she said.
She also explained how cookies can make the browsing experience smoother for internet users. Similar to how Facebook accounts automatically load when you click on their website.
“They are definitely used for tracking, and that is a problem,” she said. “But they are visible. It is impossible for a company to track you using cookies without you being able to go and look at it.”
Vaniea shared that students can find their cookies within their browser settings and delete unwanted stored data to protect themselves from undesirable tracking.
Abi Junop, a first-year performance production design student, ran into cookie pop-ups when researching her assignments. “If there’s an easily visible ‘X,’ I just get rid of it. But if it’s not very easy to find, I’ll usually just accept it because it’s easier,” she said.
“I usually advocate an ad blocker,” advised Vaniea. There’s a bunch of different ones out there, but ad blockers also block a lot of trackers.”
Vaniea said she understands the practical use of cookies overall, explaining that they add on to your device while you browse rather than extract existing information from you.
“Cookies were not developed by what we consider to be the big tech companies…they were not made with advertising in mind,” she said.
Informed by her studies in business technology, Aqil sympathizes with the purpose of cookies. “I think it allows companies to better understand their customers…they’ll build a better relationship in that sense,” she said.
“There’s a lot of little things you can do. One of them is thinking about what browser you’re using and what search engine you’re using,” said Vaniea. She encourages students to examine the companies behind the browsers they use.
Leave a Reply