Comments on: White House acts to limit YouTube cookie tracking

Just 12 hours after I highlighted privacy problems with the White House's new Web site, the Obama team has deployed a fix that provides significant protection to many (but not all) of the site's visitors.

[ajhoughton]

Don't you think this is all a bit silly? I mean, I bet Brightcove or whoever the State Department is using have log files, right? So in the oh-so-silly-and-oh-so-breathlessly-over-the-top sense in which the YouTube cookies are a serious issue, surely so are Brightcove's log files?

And have you checked that Brightcove's video player doesn't store cookies in your Flash player? As opposed to your browser?

(I don't really care either way about any of this, FWIW, I'm just pointing out that IMO the article and the complaint are perhaps a little out of proportion when compared with the actual problem, and that the proposed solution might actually very well not be.)

[csoghoian]

I'm not pitching Brightcove per se -- more the idea of paying for video hosting.

If you pay a company for their services, you get to ask for features (such as pro-privacy defaults). If you use a free service, you have no real bargaining power.

And for what it's worth -- there is a big difference between an IP address in a log (which changes each time I go to a different starbucks), and a cookie, which stays the same across different sessions.

[SilverSteelWolf]

I was under the impression that the Obama administration was also providing a downloadable version of the videos. That way, folks who are exceptionally worried about their privacy can watch the videos without being data-mined in any way by third parties. They also have the advantage of getting their own copy of the video to use however they wish.

[gggg sssss]

of course all of those who use google to find thr gov site will be tracked anyway, especially those using chrome.

Just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not whating you. The solution in EI7 is not to allow google cookies to persist. And get rid of teh google toolbbar whiel you are at it.