"Many consumers use anti-spyware software to eliminate cookies -- the mini-files deposited on the hard drives of Web users that are employed by sites to track unique visitors. Now, advertisers are fighting back with new technology. United Virtualities, also in New York City, has developed a backup ID system for cookies set by Web sites and advertising networks. The technology, called the Persistent Identification Element, is tagged to a user's Web browser. It provides advertisers with a unique identification, just like a cookie, and the tags cannot be deleted by any commercially available anti-spyware software today.
"All advertisers, Web sites and networks, use cookies for targeted advertising, but cookies are under attack," said Mookie Tenembaum, founder of United Virtualities. "They are being erased by 40 percent of users, creating serious problems. PIE will give publishers and third-party providers a persistent backup to cookies, effectively rendering them unassailable."
The PIE software is contained in just one line of code, he said.
Tenembaum said that from the advertiser's point of view the erasure of cookies constitutes a threat to an array of server-side applications, not just advertising, but also site registration and traffic counting."
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Can anyone provide info on "PIE" software and how to deal with it?
It's essentially a cookie created by Macromedia Flash and stored separately from IE or Netscape cookies. Google for "Persistent Identification Element" and you'll see there are already free programs to delete them now.
"Can anyone provide info on "PIE" software and how to deal with it (PIE)?"
"It" is MacroMedia Flash. A very evil thing. I keep Flash turned off unless I specifically need it.
Thought you might like to get a heads up on this, per our FRmails.