The number could go much higher, cautioned U.S. senators who ordered an audit of government Web sites to determine the scope of the problem. The finding was taken from 16 agency reviews, one third of the audits in progress. The Clinton Administration restricted the use of such information collecting practices last summer. Sen. Fred Thompson, chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, released the report Monday. And a contractor managing a General Services Administration Web site was granted ownership of information gathered about Internet users visiting the site.
Cookies can make browsing more convenient by allowing sites to distinguish user preferences.
But electronic freedom activists have been critical of the devices, saying they intrude on privacy because they track the kinds of Web sites frequented by a particular computer. The U.S. Mint uses the software to operate an online shopping cart that is similar to what can be found on many e-commerce sites. The departments of Education, Treasury, Energy, Interior and Transportation used unauthorized cookies, as did NASA and the General Services Administration, the report said. It did not estimate how many people visited the sites during the audit, which occurred late last year and early this year. The company Jupiter Media Metrix, which tracks Internet usage, said government sites are popular.