Federal Government Wants to Offer the People Tasty Cookies

The tasty cookies that allow them to track individual visitors to federal government websites, that is. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) doesn't want 'em:

The American Civil Liberties Union submitted comments today [Aug. 10] to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) opposing its recent proposal to reverse current federal policy and allow the use of web tracking technologies, like cookies, on federal government websites. Cookies can be used to track an Internet user's every click and are often linked across multiple websites; they frequently identify particular people.

Since 2000, it has been the policy of the federal government not to use such technology. But the OMB is now seeking to change that policy and is considering the use of cookies for tracking web visitors across multiple sessions and storing their unique preferences and surfing habits. Though this is a major shift in policy, the announcement of this program consists of only a single page from the federal register that contains almost no detail.

"This is a sea change in government privacy policy," said Michael Macleod-Ball, Acting Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Without explaining this reversal of policy, the OMB is seeking to allow the mass collection of personal information of every user of a federal government website. Until the OMB answers the multitude of questions surrounding this policy shift, we will continue to raise our strenuous objections."…

"Americans rely on the information from the federal government to research politics, medical issues and legal requirements. The OMB is now asking to retain the personal and identifiable information we leave behind," said Christopher Calabrese, Counsel for the ACLU Technology and Liberty Project. "No American should have to sacrifice privacy or risk surveillance in order to access free government information…."

Jacob Sullum blogged last week on whether private companies' computer cookies should be of alarm, deciding "not really."