Tracking Cookies

Recently when I was browsing the Guardian I got this bar across the top of the page.

This must be from the EU's new cookie directive. From the Register:

The EU has put forward a directive that partly covers the use of cookies (Directive 2009/136/EC [PDF]) and set a timetable for this to be incorporated into the national law of member states by 25 May. The rules emphasise the need for clear consent from a user, underpinned by clear up-front explanations, before cookies are installed on a user's machine.

The link in the bar on the Guardian page took me here. That page is very thorough and further down the page was this section on "How do I turn cookies off?"

In that section was a link to the Network Advertising Initiative.

I went there and clicked on that big red button on the right.

That button took me here.

While I had all either "No Cookie" or null entries a friend had a lot of sites with "Active Cookie: You have not opted out and you have an active cookie from this network."

So you know what I did. Clicked on "Select All" and then "Submit."

Ooops!

Hmmm. Why didn't it take?

I tripped myself up. In Chrome I had third party cookies blocked. It seems that the opt-out cookies are technically third party cookies.

So I went to Chrome's Settings. In Settings I clicked on "Show advanced settings..." Next I went to Privacy / Content Settings.

I unchecked "Block third-party cookies and site data" and clicked "OK" way down at the bottom.

Then I tried the "Select All" and then "Submit."

Much better. A couple of them still didn't take but I made real progress. Then I re-checked "Block third-party cookies and site data" in Chrome's settings.

On this page the NAI says:

The NAI has adopted a policy that all NAI member companies set a minimum lifespan of five years for their opt out cookies.

So I should be done for a while.

For the truly paranoid, go run this test.