A question about tracking

[Trotter]

why would it need to be a tracking cookie?
although I'm not well versed on how cookies work, basically plain ol' regular cookies keep tabs to what users do and where they go from one forum to the next on this site. An ad tracking cookie goes beyond the TF forums no? (hence the term "tracking")

Yes and no. You are taking a third party's assumption that this is a ad tracking cookie, as well as their definition as to what that is and what it does. According to what they say it is an ad tracking cookie.

What is actually being done is that Quantcast is keeping track of who visits this site, what they do, and so on. It is doing this so that Andy and his team can see what is popular, what is dead, what attracts visitors, what doesn't, etc. Quantcast can be used for advertising but I haven't seen that here. It can also be used as a broad spectrum tracker but, again, I have not seen that here.

Believe me, if anything out of the way was pulled on the membership here I would be the first one firing up Andy's phone (the owner). I can be rather ferocious when it comes to Tech-Forums, having went to bat against several of things Larry pulled out of the air. Andy is a straight up guy as I have spoen with him many times about TF and I am confident that he would not do anything involving underhanded means.

 

[KSoD]

why would it need to be a tracking cookie?
although I'm not well versed on how cookies work, basically plain ol' regular cookies keep tabs to what users do and where they go from one forum to the next on this site. An ad tracking cookie goes beyond the TF forums no? (hence the term "tracking")

Actually no regular cookies do all of that. They keep your information. Such as your login information if you click the Remember Me box. But it cant tell you every thread you have been in and what they do while on the site.

Plus the cookie does not tell you of unique visits. Let me put it this way. You open a store that has a display window on the street. You want to know how many unique visitors actually see the display, not just seeing the same people walk by it time after time. So you come up with a "tracking cookie" that allows you to distinguish who has seen it and who has not.

No other sites have access to this information, no other sites can use this information and above all, it doesnt retain any personal information. It is just to track unique visits. So you can see how well your display is working on drawing attention.

So as you see, there is such a thing as a good tracking cookie, like the ones we use here, and the bad ones. The ones you only hear about in the news and online sites. The bad kind you are thinking of is like the one Facebook used for the longest time that even after you signed out it would track what you were doing online. That is a bad tracking cookie. There are 2 sides to everything. Just like there is good hacking and bad hacking. You dont read stories about ethical hackers, but you read stories all the time about Anon.

You only think of bad things when you see such a term cause that is all you ever hear about. But there is a good side, that is what we are using so we know unique visits.

 

[office politics]

here's some more info about the cookies

About Our Data

Anonymity and Relevance
Quantcast only models anonymous records of Internet usage. Quantcast does not intentionally collect any personally identifiable information – that is, information that could be used to uniquely identify or locate an individual. For further information, please see our privacy policy.

Consumers benefit from these tools because the products and services presented to them in online ads are more relevant to their interests. As an example, our tools can determine that because of the content you have viewed online, you (as an anonymous user) may be interested in a specific kind of bicycle. Rather than viewing repetitive, disruptive ads about irrelevant products, you may see ads that showcase a bicycle you may be interested in. Because our audience models evolve constantly, end users see ads that are particularly relevant. In this way, ads work best for both consumers and advertisers, and when they work well for advertisers, publishers can generate more revenue for the content they produce, enabling them to create more great free content for web audiences.

 

[Joe C]

Thanks all.
I get paranoid about tracking is all. I have no problem with any forum that uses advertizing in order to cover costs of having the forum on line.