A lot of people are heated over the government changing their policy on cookie usage. Most notably the ACLU. I’d like to try and clear this up for all the conspiracy theorists and paranoid people out there.
The reason they are using the “tracking” cookies and why they want to change the policy is important. Government websites are notoriously out of date and the reason they can’t take advantage of newer technologies is the policy against using persistent cookies. Now that the policy is possibly going to be changed the government plans on overhauling all the government websites to use the latest web technologies to better serve the public (you). This isn’t a big brother scheme to control your life. The only things these cookies tell the web servers are:
- your IP address
- any information YOU supply to the site (name, email, phone number)
- when you visited and how long
This practice is no different than Google, Facebook, Twitter, or even this site. You can call it tearing down freedoms but it’s just a fact of modern web technology. These cookies are essential to how the web works and they enhance user experience.