The Battle Between Third-Party Cookies and Personal Data: Planet Money : NPR

Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Housing Works

Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Housing Works

Internet cookies do many things. They allow people to log into websites. They make internet comments possible. And, yes, cookies also allow advertisers to track users across the internet and serve them ads based on their previous searches.

That wasn’t what inventor Lou Montulli had in mind. In fact, Montulli designed cookies specifically to protect people’s anonymity when they were online. But in the nearly three decades since he invented them, Montulli has watched them revolutionize how commerce is done on the internet. His invention went from an obscure piece of code designed to hide a user’s identity to an online advertiser’s dream and a privacy advocate’s nightmare, sparking a corporate arms race to steal as much of our digital data as possible.

Today’s show tells the story of how cookies became a monster. Why did the world’s largest Internet browser finally decide to crash cookies – and largely eliminate them from the Internet? What would the World Wide Web look like without cookies?

The episode was produced by Willa Rubin, with assistance from Dave Blanchard. It was edited by Keith Romer and designed by Alex Drewenskus.

music: “Fruit Salad“”sneaking,” and”Blue and Green“”.

Subscribe to Planet Money+ to help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes In Apple Podcasts or plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

These links are always free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, NPR One Or wherever you get your podcasts.

Find more Planet Money: twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Tik Tok Our Weekly communication.