The role of Cookies

What is a cookie? Cookies can help users keep their login information until the next session with the server, when the next visit to the site, users will find that no need to re-enter the user name and password can be logged in order to simplify the login procedures; e-commerce website's "Shopping cart" in the same website for a period of time, Users may choose a different item on another page, which is written to cookies, and can be easily extracted when payment is made.

Everything has two sides, netease, friends, etc. will be targeted at customers "superb words" used to CCTV 315 unannounced officers, not only failed to improve sales performance, but also caused their own and even the entire internet marketing industry deep in public opinion crisis.

CCTV 315 Evening Spotlight Light, not only as the media netease inadvertently pushed on the stage, friends of the interactive, easy media, Yi Ma, easy, Chuan Yang company these digital advertising platform, "Fire" A: allegedly through cookies to steal user information. The precise marketing that internet companies relish seems to be experiencing a major crisis.

For a time, cookies, a tool widely known in the Internet world, are almost universally recognized by non-professional users as a scourge that steals users ' privacy. Tencent Science and Technology report CCTV 315 Evening exposure internet companies suspected of using cookies to steal personal privacy, a large number of users in Tencent Weibo spoke, expressed great concern.

What exactly is a cookie? Is it like NetEase, product friends and other market personnel to claim that the hundreds of millions of users of personal privacy sweep? What are the implications of this exposure for the future? Tencent Science and technology visit business CEO and industry experts, hope that the non-professional users do not have to produce unnecessary panic, Industry users can reflect on the future of the new marketing strategy.

What is a cookie?

Google has published Wikipedia's explanation of cookies on Weibo. Cookies (plural form cookies), in Chinese names are small text files or cookies, data (usually encrypted) that is stored on a user's local terminal (client Side) in order to identify a user's identity. Cookies are generated by the server side, sent to user (typically the browser), and the browser saves the key value of the cookie to a text file in a directory, sending the cookie to the server the next time the same site is requested ( If the browser is set to enable cookies. The former employee of Netscape, Lou Montulli, was invented in March 1993.

In the Internet, cookies are used everywhere:

Cookies can keep the login information to the user's next session with the server, and the next time they visit the same site, users will find that they are logged in without having to enter a username and password (of course, not excluding the user from manual deletion of cookies) in order to simplify the login procedures; e-commerce website's " Users may select different items on different pages of the same Web site for a period of time, and the information will be written to cookies to extract information at the final payment.

For example, you often go online to see a car, when you search for Ferrari, the first display of the search results are Ferrari, not Ferrari this person. For example, some of the electronic business site "Guess you like" function will need to use cookies.

Cookies: The debate on stealing privacy tools

This is a hot issue in many countries.

At the CCTV 315 party, "cookie tracking leaked privacy" is regarded as a shocking infringement.

The first exposure is the quality of friends interaction. CCTV reporter in Chaoyang District, Beijing, a building to find friends Interactive, the company's big customer director Zhang Jie on the spot revealed that the product friends interaction is like a spider's web, no matter where the user can catch users. According to Zhang Jie, friends of the interaction can now capture the Internet 570 million of cookies.

The exposure of the easy media is claimed to have more than 300 million Internet user cookie data; Easy to exchange, Ivy Yi, known to have 500 million Internet users cookie data; the company and the million-MA online are claiming to have 900 million cookies; As with friends, these companies get user cookies, The basics are implemented by adding code to other sites.

Jing Shuo Century Technology Co., Ltd. sales staff told CCTV 315 unannounced officers, "as long as the cookie, including the user's mobile phone number, users who, the number can be known." ”

CCTV 315 reports also cited the NetEase company East China Channel Center Director Guo Xinghua speech, NetEase can see the user's mail content, in order to analyze user habits and send accurate ads. The user details that the network obtains through various means, this can enable the company to advertise more accurately. For example, users have a stock account to reply to some mail, NetEase can be based on the content of the message to analyze the user is a financial customers, and targeted them to put some ads.

A technical personage thinks, the salesman of NetEase is wrong to describe, actually can't see the data of individual user, but the machine completes automatically. NetEase said in response: "We will regulate the sales department, to avoid exaggerated publicity, misleading." ”

From then on, companies said, and executives accepted Tencent's technology interview, the exaggerated description of the sales staff of internet marketing companies is likely to be a scramble for business.

"It is reasonable to bring more convenience to users by collecting user information to improve the user experience by tracking user behavior." It is illegal to use collected user information for profit or resale. In another dimension, the parsing of information is a standard to consider whether or not to constitute a user's information disclosure. "A person who has been investing in the internet for a long time says that, technically, if it is a behavioral analysis of a large user profile, it does not touch a single user's information disclosure."

"Through cookies, internet companies know what you like, but don't know who you are." "This may be the most appropriate description of cookies and their application in precision marketing."

Industry reflection: the need to establish privacy standards

It looks like CCTV 315 party This exposure will not have a substantial impact on the relevant sites.

Billion MA company, the United States, friends, such as interaction between the CEO in Tencent Technology interview, all denied that the CCTV exposure will affect the company's operations. They say that internet circles understand cookie rules, and investors know more about the effects of cookies, do not lose confidence in the company, and accurate advertising is the future trend.

Perhaps, for those marketing companies based on large data analysis, the greater exposure to pressure should come from the non-capital side.

Blogger Xingdong, China's founder, said in a visit to Tencent Micro-interview, media reports on the one-sided, simplistic, demonized reports, causing users unnecessary panic, not conducive to the problem recognition and resolution.

Analysts said that the impact of public opinion and ideological formation of the market management of the conduction of the industry far more lethal than CCTV 315 reports.

It should be emphasized that in foreign countries, Google, Amazon, Facebook also benefit from the collection and analysis of user behavior in order to come up with the most outstanding business experience. This is also the Internet subversion of traditional media "advertisers know that half of the advertising costs are wasted, but it does not know which half of the waste is the core competitiveness."

At home, Alibaba, Jingdong development large data also rely on cookie support. Many commercial websites commonly use the cross station tracking and the cookie tracking method to collect and analyze the data of the user's Internet behavior, in order to realize the accurate advertisement.

Xingdong said that the effective and reasonable use of cookies is the advantage of the Internet, but also the value of the Internet, the cookie problem can not be simplistic absolute, to do is to prevent abuse, rather than not.

Previously, the consortium had issued a draft standard for "No Tracking" (DNT, do not Track), under which users could opt out of being tracked by the site. Microsoft and the European Union announced support for the standard in October, and Google announced its support by the end of 2012. That is, users have the option to choose whether or not to select a cookie record.

A person in the advertising industry has pointed out to Tencent that if a user explicitly prohibits cookies from tracking, the site continues to acquire user information, which is clearly a violation of the user's behavior. Under normal circumstances, the Web site can crawl the user's gender, age and other information, should be hit is the collection of user privacy behavior, including QQ number, name, ID card, passport and other information. In most cases, the user welcomes cookies to follow, but the domestic need to clearly define privacy standards.

Informing and reminding

One technology source believes that the use of cookies requires the attention of both users and businesses. In order to protect the privacy of users, the major sites should not easily allow the ads to inject code to get cookies, while informing users of what information may be obtained from the user.

Innovation Workshop CEO Kai-Fu Lee, according to the content of the mail (or other user information) to put accurate advertising and personalized experience, which is most of the mailbox (including Google) are used technology, although controversial, but not netease a problem. Recommended all mailboxes: 1 to inform the user that the information is used, 2 to ensure no abuse of information, 3 to provide do Not track option (privacy, but give up precision advertising and personalized experience).

For users, you can use browser settings to clear cookies (for example, ie browser):

1. Click on the "Tools" menu above the browser toolbar.

2. In the Open Drop-down list, click Internet Options

3. In the Open pop-up menu, click the "delete button"

Delete Flash Cookies:

1. Click the "Start" button on the operating system and click "Control Panel"

2. Click Flash Player in the open Control Panel

3. In the open Flash Player Settings Manager, select Save, then click the "Remove All" button

4. Finally select Delete all site data and settings, and then click the "Delete Data" button to

5. Select "Cookie and website data", other items can not be selected, and then click the Delete button below. Wait about 10 seconds, and there will be a hint of a successful deletion.