• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, March 2, 2009

At the end of January, the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation complained to the Obama administration about its practice of embedding YouTube clips on the site WhiteHouse.gov. The EFF argued that YouTube poses a potential threat to users' privacy because it places persistent cookies on users' computers, including hard-to-delete flash cookies.  

Apparently, the White House was listening. This weekend, the site WhiteHouse.gov posted a Flash-based video of Obama's latest speech. The clip is served directly by the White House and apparently uses Akamai, Cnet reports. While the White House still posts clips to YouTube, the ones embedded on the government site no longer use tracking cookies, according to Cnet.

The government didn't officially respond to the EFF's letter, but legal director Cindy Cohn told MediaPost she was taking the weekend's development as a good sign. "You should be able to get government information without being tracked," Cohn said.

At the same time, the White House still hasn't made clear why it originally waived its 8-year-old ban on persistent cookies for YouTube.

Google itself pointed out that the White House still has a channel on YouTube and that other YouTube clips remain embedded on WhiteHouse.gov. Google also reiterated that it ensures "the privacy of visitors to federal websites that use our technology."

To some extent, the debate about tracking cookies isn't the most pressing privacy issue that either Google or the federal government is facing. Google's retention of IP addresses appears far more threatening, because courts can always order ISPs to disclose the identities associated with particular IP addresses. On the other hand, users can delete their cookies, making them less of a privacy threat.

Still, the EFF is right that the government should explain itself. If it's going to authorize companies like YouTube to track visitors to federal sites, it should be able to articulate reasons for that decision.