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The Cookie Monster

Today eMarketer wrote about a study by WebTrends that spells trouble for Web analytics firms.

Recent reports show that cookies are being deleted more than ever by consumers. But rejection rates are also increasing. Third-party cookies are used by Web analytics firms to track a web site's unique visitors and their responses to marketing campaigns and promotions. But cookie rejection is enabled by new software mechanisms that block cookies from ever being set on users' computers.

Cookie deletion and cookie rejection can distort key metrics, leading to artificially inflated unique visitor counts and undercounted repeat visitors.

WebTrends reported that the cookie rejection rate rose to 12.4% in April 2005 - from 2.84% in January 2004.

It seems rejection rates vary widely by industry. Retailers have a cookie rejection rate of 16.9%, the highest of the 11 online industries tracked. Telecom's 15.4% rejection rate is next in line.

I'm guessing that consumers' increased awareness of cookies is prompting many to deliberately delete or reject them, as plenty of people hate the thought of anything they do being tracked. It may even be part of the regular routine when people "clean up" their computer these days.




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