Microsoft patents super cookies

While you can track certain info with cookies (ask the tinfoil hat crowd for a complete list), there's still a lot of things that cookies leave out by design. So Microsoft has patented the "super cookie." What is a super cookie? According to ArsTechnica super cookies are just like regular cookies, but better. Obviously Microsoft, or anyone looking to improve data reporting, wants to increase the amount of info stored in cookies. That is supposedly the nature of this patent, involving tracking data and most importantly, it adds the ability to allow more data types in the future. The current patent allows four to start with: bits, counters, dates, and strings. Check out the ArsTechnica article for a specific example from the filing, which was submitted in 2000, but was awarded to MS this week.

Tags: cookies, news, privacy, super cookies, SuperCookies