Most computer users believe that setting their browsers to not accept cookies will prevent websites from downloading these bits of tracking code to their hard drives. But that isn’t necessarily true. Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported on a new breed of cookies, called “supercookies” that are downloaded to a different portion of users’ hard drives than traditional cookies are. Browser “no-cookie” settings won’t prevent them from being stored there, and removing them is a cumbersome and repetitive process.
On Monday, Representatives Joe Barton and Edward Markey, the former a Texas Republican, the latter a Massachusetts Democrat who together chair the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, officially asked the FTC to investigate the use of supercookies.
FYI, MSN.com and Hulu.com are two sites known to use cookies, according to the Congressmen’s letter. We’re just saying.
Read more at PCWorld.
