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Let’s go back in time.  A long time ago, around the year 2000, the internet was a very different place.  It was a land of bright, neon-colored, pieced-together websites.  It was a wild west.  It was disorganized. 

Well, compared to today, it was disorganized.  And it was messy.  At the tops of every webpage, it seemed, were advertisements, in a big block, about something having nothing to do with the website you were on.  And in addition to those, the pop-ups.  The dreaded pop-ups.  Sometimes, when entering a web space, there would suddenly be 8 advertisements competing for your attention like little children straining to be the first one to break the piñata at your next-door neighbors loud birthday party….phew.  Anyway.

It was miserable.  You NEVER clicked on the advertisements because you never WANTED anything they had to offer.

Recently, though, that has begun to change, thanks to cookies and internet sites’ abilities to cater the cookies to the needs of their website.  Let’s start with cookies.

Cookies are files that are stored on your computer.  When you visit, let’s say, Amazon, the website tells your computer to make a cookie file with certain information.  While you are at that site, they edit the file with information about your visit.  What products you looked at; what products you purchased; they even store an encrypted version of your password that only they have access to (if you ask them to).

This is done for almost all websites.  Recently, companies, such as Google, have started trying to look at the different cookies you have collected so that they can better cater their experience to what you may want or need.  If you’ve searched for kitchen appliances, you may want to go to Sears.  This is all done, in their words to try to make your experience more enjoyable and easy.

Recently, there has been talk at the FTC to introduce legislation requiring the installation of a “do not track” feature into your internet browser.  Many feel that these companies, since they do not ask your permission to place these cookies on your computer, are spying on you.  Many would say, they are basically acting like a person who follows you around the mall and sees what stores you go into, only to try to sell you something.

It seems to me that, in a country that seems to agree with a “smaller government” point of view (if only based on the last election), more enforcement by the FTC into the internet is the opposite of what we desire.  Many people enjoy that Amazon can recommend books you may like, based on what you’ve previously looked at.  I know I enjoy the advertisements I see that are actually relevant to me, instead of annoying pop-ups of the internet of yesteryear  And this isn’t even an issue that they NEED to enter into as you can delete the cookies or DISABLE cookies in Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera or Netscape Navigator.

Many people are want there to be a mandatory disabling of all tracking on the internet for all companies, but options available to individuals, we don’t need government intervention.  As this is a major way that companies can get advertisers to use their websites (and since all websites can’t just start charging more for usage), we’ll be back to advertisements that are random, annoying and do not help you find the things you really want on the internet. 

I understand people’s nervousness about tracking on the internet, but if you disable cookies and you’re still concerned, remember, websites can only track the information you give them.