Cookies and Privacy

Does putting a cookie on a computer always violate privacy?

[Russ Dollinger]

I have a shopping cart that allows me to create special offers.
For example, the first 100 buyers get a 15% discount.

I use a great service called shoppingcart for that. (One of many different services offered.) My customers are diverted (without most of them ever realizing it) to shoppingcart. shoppingcart puts a cookie on that person's computer, and then sends them to my page. When that person buys they are actually going back to shoppingcart (with my logo on the page) where the cookie is read and the customer is given the appropriate discount on checkout. It also gives me a report of click-throughs and conversion rate. Very helpful in evaluating whether an ad is any good.

Does that cookie violate a privacy policy that basically says, "We don't share private information."?

[amoore]

(in my opinion, and I am not a laywer...)
That cookie itself may not, because the way cookies work is that only the site that sets them can read them. Your shopping cart provider has to have whatever information they want to stick in their cookie. Then they are the only ones that read it back.

On the other hand, the fact that you send your user to another site in such a way as to describe to that other site what items the user wants to purchase may be construed as sharing information with them. The fact that that other site decides to store some of that information in a cookie is somewhat irrelevant in my eyes, and moot at that point.

I think this is reasonable behavoir, though, and is expected these days. Perhaps your policy should reflect your arrangements and agreements with your service providers.

[Russ Dollinger]

There seems to be some consensus that the issue is not the cookie.
The issue is that I have sent a customer to a 3rd party without their knowledge, and more importantly, had them give all kinds of private info to somebody they didn't know.

I believe they have a privacy policy that is beyond reproach, but I
understand the point. Honestly never occurred to me.

How can you process anybody's credit card info? You have to share it with the gateway processor.

More importantly--what now?

I couldn't begin to afford a shopping cart with all the extra bells and whistles that shoppingcart has. Also, I don't have the staff to maintain it. Should I put a message on my page saying purchases will be handled by a reputable company, blah, blah, blah.
That will kill sales. Do I change my privacy policy to "We only share your most private information."?

(edited by: mark_roach at 1:39 pm (utc) on Mar. 21, 2002)