The Online Shopper
Illustration for TIME Money by Incy Wincy Studio
By DAN ERCK
We all enjoy a little extra-special treatment every now and then, whether it's a prime table at our favorite restaurant or an upgrade on that long flight across the Pacific. Being recognized makes us feel valued--and we're more likely to do business with someone who takes the time to go that extra mile. E-commerce sites know this, and they're doing everything they can to create personalized environments so we'll want to spend money online. How? By employing cookies.
They've got a quirky name, but these modern-day maitre d's are an increasingly important aspect of the engine driving the Internet economy. Cookies are bits of data stored on your computer's hard drive when you visit a website. They can only be read by the site that sets them. Companies use them to store information about you and to track your behavior on a particular website--which pages you visit, how long you stay on the site, how frequently you return. And, of course, your shopping habits.
Cookies help companies personalize their websites. This is how an online bookstore knows you're you, or how a news website knows to show you headlines from your hometown. Retailers use cookies to promote products they think you might like or to target ads that you might find appealing. Cookies also record user IDs and passwords so you don't have to log in each time you visit a site. (Warning! This is a security risk if you share a computer with co-workers or if you're using a computer at, say, an Internet cafe.)
Cookies have a darker side too, and all kinds of privacy issues lurk at every bend. On their own, cookies are generally harmless, if mildly intrusive. (The worst that generally happens is that you get unwanted "spam" e-mail.) One potential problem, though, crops up when you enter personal information on a survey. This can be easily linked up with cookies about your surfing habits and--Voila!--the website knows pretty much everything there is to know about you. Often this information is used simply to show you an advertisement for a product you might want to buy. But privacy advocates worry that this information could be misused. Visit Electronic Privacy Information Center, at www.epic.org, or the National Fraud Information Center, www.fraud.org, for more information.
For the most part, though, there's no Big Brother out there. Cookies can be read only by the Web server that sets them, meaning a third-party can't sneak onto your computer to see what you've been up to. The game changes, though, when one company sets cookies across dozens of sites. This is the case with U.S.-based online advertising behemoths DoubleClick and 24/7 Media. The risk here is that an apparel site might know that you've visited a sports news site and proceed to show you an ad for a football jersey--even if you've never visited the apparel site before. Some surfers cringe at the thought of this, others chalk it up to the realities of doing business in the digital age. Get used to it--it's not going to become any less intrusive.
Here's what you can do as an online shopper to protect your privacy:
• Accept only cookies that get sent back to the originating server. Both Microsoft Explorer and Netscape Communicator offer this option. You could always decide not to accept cookies, but be warned that many sites might not work properly.
• Shop only with sites that post online privacy policies.
• Be careful about what sort of information you give out in surveys.
• Set up a secondary profile using an anonymous e-mail account and bogus ID. It's clandestine, but you'll surf with greater anonymity. Of course, when you actually want to buy something you'll have to give out your real name and address.
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