If you are a frequent visitor to YouTube or just stopped by Scribid to check it out just once, or any other Flash site the odds are you have zombie cookies lurking on the computer that you thought were long gone according to an article at Helium. A lawsuit has been filed against major web properties for installing zombie cookies on computers. The suit alleges that the Quantcast cookies violate eavesdropping, hacking, fair trade laws, and have a pattern of covert online surveillance. The firms named in the suit include:
ABC- ESPN
- HULU
- MySpace
- MTV
- NBC
- Scribid
- YouTube
- Most other sites utilizing Flash
When you visit a website they generally place a cookie on your computer, which you can delete. But you delete a zombie cookie it comes back to life in a sense – hence the cool name. The problem was first identified at UC Berkley. They noticed that they were deleting cookies, but they kept coming back over and over. No amount of deleting them would kill the nasty little buggers off. After tracking down their location the only fix that was easily available at that time was deleting the cookies and Adobe Flash Player (ADBE).
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.