I’m not sure whether this belongs on StackOverflow or on ServerFault, so I’ve picked SO for as first go.
A number of years ago, there was a highly visible discussion about mis-use of HTTP cookies, leading to various cookie filtering proxys and eventually to active cookie filtering in browsers like Firefox and Opera. Even now, Google will admit that currently about 7% of end-users will reject their tracking cookies, which is quite a lot, actually.
I still vett all cookies that get set in my browser. I have for years. I personally do not know anyone else who does this, but it has given me a few interesting insights into web tracking. For instance, there are many many more sites using Google Analytics than there were even two years ago. And there are still sites (extremely few, fortunately) which malfunction hideously if you don’t let them set cookies. But advertisers in particular are still setting cookies to track your way across the web.
So is there much of an anti-cookie movement anymore? Has anyone tried to take Google to task for setting so many with Analytics? Is anyone trying to vilify sites like Ebay and PayPal who use a dodgy cross-site cookie to let you login?
Or am I making too much of a stupidly small problem?
I am also one of the hold-outs who doesn’t automatically accept cookies. I do appreciate sites that need fewer, and I am more likely to return to those sites and allow cookies from them in the future.
That said, I do think that being vigilant about cookies is not (rationally) worth the effort. (In other words, I expect I will keep doing what I’m doing because it makes me feel better, even though I don’t have evidence of commensurate tangible benefit.)