White House to Open Gate on Tracking Web Browsing

A policy change under review by the White House would allow the federal government to begin tracking Internet traffic on its Web sites.

Since 2000, government Web sites have been banned from using cookies, which are identifying codes collected when a computer visits a Web site. When the computer returns, the Web site remembers the previous visits. The ban was enacted as a privacy protection. Since then, using cookies has become more common, and two weeks ago the White House announced plans to overturn the policy.

Even with the ban on cookies, there have been some government attempts at tracking Web browsing. The New York Times' posting on the proposed lifting of the ban reminded us that both the National Security Agency in 2005 and the CIA in 2001 were caught, as it were, with their hands in the cookie jar. And Computer World noted all the way back in January that YouTube videos embedded on the redesigned White House Web site had been using the video-sharing site's tracking cookies.

The White House science and technology blog, on which the planned policy shift was announced, says the shift is no more threatening than using a shopping cart to purchase items online -- a Web site feature that requires cookies. The view that using cookies is already quite common on the Internet is not the best argument -- Amazon.com doing something doesn't mean that whitehouse.gov should do the same. But the other details released, including promises of improving the usability of outdated government Web sites and the promise of a clear opt-out method that won't cut off access to the sites, makes the policy shift more acceptable.

Of course, if you don't want government Web sites using cookies, opting out once the policy is enacted is not the only option. Until Aug. 10, the White House science blog has invited users to post public comments about the proposal.