The issue here is that third-party cookies are tracking Web surfers' movements across the Web without them knowing it. Nevertheless, cookies are absolutely crucial to many e-commerce business models. Sites rely on the services of companies such as DoubleClick Inc. and Engage Technologies Inc., which use cookies to measure site traffic in order to target advertisers. Third-party cookies allow smaller sites to band together and have ads sold and delivered by ad networks to compete with larger Web sites. How it works With the cookie management feature in IE 5.5, every third-party cookie sent to the browser generates a dialog box that asks the user whether to accept or block the cookie.
Users can check a box that eliminates further warnings.
I tried it. LeFurgy said users receive too many cookies to have a dialog box pop up every time a server wants to send one. So we began planning ways that our technology might be useful to consumers. Such incidents, however, are an example of the pressure that e-businesses and advertisers are under to capture critical customer data. Today's invasion of privacy is tomorrow's convenience.