Microsoft Awarded ‘Super Cookie’ Patent
A new Microsoft patent is causing a little heartburn in some quarters, but the patent for a so-called “super cookie,” may have come so long after Microsoft’s application that it’s been superceded by newer technologies.
U.S. Patent 7,039,699, or ‘699, will provide developers with a permanent cookie that can contain bits, counters, dates and strings and can be accessed via an API that can be called from JavaScript, ASP and VBScript.
It’s what can be done with the cookie that has some people sensing an invasion of privacy.
Web sites can use information found in the domain cookie to determine where the user has been and what kind of activity they engaged in and purchases they made to determine what kind of content they should present to the visitor.
