SAN FRANCISCO: 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.
"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.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 criticised.
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 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."
"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." "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."
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.