• Adweek, Wednesday, December 7, 2005 10:01 AM

We're used to hearing that Internet users think tracking cookies are an invasion of their privacy, but conventional Web wisdom has always said that most people don't really understand the benefits. Well, a new study from Blue Lithium, an ad network, could dispel that notion: 83 percent of respondents claim familiarity with cookies, and they still don't like them. In an admittedly small survey of 150 Web users, 83 percent of respondents said they understand what cookies are, while 64 percent said cookies invade their privacy. Cookies, used by publishers to save user settings and by advertisers to target ads, have always been a sensitive subject with consumers. Fifty-two percent of respondents said they prefer to use the Internet with cookies disabled; 39 percent said they delete them on a weekly basis; and 25 percent said they do so monthly.

Read the whole story at Adweek »