Cookie Clearinghouse

Do cookies bug you? Well, the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School has announced a list-based exception platform for managing cookies, called the Cookie Clearinghouse (CCH). Mozilla has committed to work with the CCH Advisory Board to develop the platform.

The Cookie Clearinghouse hopes to identify instances where there is cookie tracking by third party sites that users may never visit and will consult with an advisory board to determine how to handle those cases. The CCH Advisory board consists of browser makers such as Mozilla and Opera Software, privacy researchers and experts in small businesses and European law. Comments from the public will also be enabled. The project emerged from Stanford researchers' Do Not Track project, which has turned into a wider global proposal for user-managed tracking.

“Internet users are starting to understand that their online activities are closely monitored, often by companies they have never heard of before” said Aleecia M. McDonald, the Director of Privacy at CIS, "but Internet users currently don’t have the tools they need to make online privacy choices. The Cookie Clearinghouse will create, maintain, and publish objective information." The operation of the Clearinghouse will also include routes for companies who are blacklisted to request reclassification.