Abstract
Current European Union legislation demands that websites that use web cookies to extract information about the personal preferences of Internet users request their permission to obtain such data. Widespread misinformation about web cookies threatens users’ feelings of security while leading also to a lack of privacy problems due to the need to accept cookies. However, not accepting cookies raises functionality issues on websites, and the value created by companies is not optimized. This article reviewed the existing literature and conducted a survey (with 102 valid responses) to understand Internet users’ behaviour in terms of fear of accepting cookies and the benefit generated by cookies to users. We conclude that the trade-off between security and performance of websites portrayed in the literature is illusory and is mainly due to the lack of information about cookies by users. We also conclude that there is a paradox: although most users feel insecure, they eventually accept cookies to simplify their online browsing.
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Pinto, P., Lages, R., Au-Yong-Oliveira, M. (2020). Web Cookies: Is There a Trade-off Between Website Efficiency and User Privacy?. In: Rocha, Á., Adeli, H., Reis, L., Costanzo, S., Orovic, I., Moreira, F. (eds) Trends and Innovations in Information Systems and Technologies. WorldCIST 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1160. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45691-7_67
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