Strangers in a Strange Land: Public Interest Advocacy and Internet Standards

Alan Davidson, Center for Democracy and Technology, John Morris, Center for Democracy and Technology, and Robert Courtney, Center for Democracy and Technology

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2000)

"Cookie" technology was introduced into the Netscape browser in the mid-1990s. Cookies enable a variety of convenient features - for example, they enable Amazon.com to keep track of a "shopping basket" while you choose books to purchase. Similarly, cookies enable you to register once for nytimes.com and then later access that site without having to re-enter a username and password. But as a technical matter, the use of cookies is not limited to adding convenience within a given Internet site. Instead, for example, cookies can be used by Internet advertisers to keep track of which sites you visit and which advertisements you view, thereby developing a broad picture of the types of sites and topics of interest to you. In some cases those advertisers can correlate that information with your name and contact information. Cookies represent just one example where technical design decisions can have direct impact on issues of public policy concern - in this example, individual privacy. This paper discusses this reality more generally, and considers ways to inject a public voice into the technical design process.