It’s time to have a serious talk about cookies.
No, not the warm chocolate chip ones fresh out of the oven. These cookies are the ones tracking and and affecting your online experience — and they could be affecting the way you vote.
We’ve all seen the banners full of legal jargon that pop up when visiting nearly every website. Their purpose is to ensure that consumers have the option to opt in or opt out of data-tracking cookies. But in today’s world of instant gratification, many users are trigger-happy to click “agree” and move on.
With nearly half of all internet users blindly accepting cookies, it invites a few questions. Do people even know what they’re really consenting to? And, if they don’t consent, does it even make a difference?
The answer could impact the presidency.
In a recent survey, less than half (46 percent) of consumers felt at least somewhat confident they understand what cookies are and what they do. Cookies are small data files that are stored on a user’s device when they visit a website, and can be used to track user behavior and build a profile of personally identifiable information. This can include our emails, phone numbers, web browsing history, location, login credentials, web search history and more.
While cookie tracking is a useful tool for businesses to understand their customers, gather valuable insights about consumer preferences and personalize tailored experiences with their brand, it is paramount — and in cases like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation or the California Consumer Privacy Act, it is the law — that users have a right to consent to what data companies can track.
But whether people consent to these trackers or not, a recent audit of 5,000 websites revealed that 75 percent of organizations did not honor a person’s opt-out request for online trackers. This is mainly due to inherent tracking properties of popular e-commerce add-ons that continue tracking data even if the consumer does not consent. Even though most businesses aren’t trying to be malicious, the data collected and stored on an individual can have far-reaching effects on what information they are presented with and influence their perceptions.
Utilizing a voter’s tracked online behavior in conjunction with easily accessible offline characteristics such as party registration, voting history, donations, address and age allows campaigns to micro-target political advertising to that voter. This translates to different voters receiving differing messages without the level of personalization being apparent to the voter.
What’s more, the way you behave online could affect the information that is presented.
Consider this: A well-intentioned voter may go online and search questions about a candidate, policy or topic to educate themselves ahead of Election Day. However, their results could look completely different than another user with the exact same search because of the preferences they have displayed via their tracked data, as the search engine they use tries to populate the most customized experience for that user.
For example, a voter with an IP address in a predominantly red state like Alabama might be first shown details on a right-leaning candidate, coupled with political ads aligned to those ideals. Meanwhile, a voter with an IP address in New York may be shown more left-aligned messaging and results.
Learned preferences is a normal method of targeting in marketing campaigns, but voters who don’t understand how this information is being stored — and who has access to it — don’t know that the information being gathered online is a result of their own behaviors, and could be potentially deeper into one political direction. The number of data breaches in the U.S. is increasingly rising; should malicious nation-state actors get their hands on Personal Identifiable Information tracked via cookies, it becomes possible to target these voters extremely effectively.
As consumers and voters, getting smart about what cookies and consent actually means when it comes to your data can ensure you’re aware of how you may be targeted with ads and information online this election season. Instead of rushing to consent or click “agree” and move on, be cautious to only accept these trackers from brands you trust. And keep in mind, your preferences may still be tracked regardless of your response.
Going to the polls fully educated goes beyond knowing candidates’ stances on key issues. But you must also know that every search you make impacts future results you may see. Therefore it’s important to keep an open mind while doing your research.
The time to learn about data management’s impact on your everyday life is now, before Nov. 5.
Daniel Barber is co-founder and CEO of data privacy company DataGrail.