Security News > 2022 > July > Nearly all governmental websites serve cookies or third-party trackers

In some countries up to 90% of governmental websites add third-party tracker cookies without users' consent.

"There are first-party cookies, which are those created by the visited website itself, while third-party cookies are those commonly created by external agents through content embedded in the website. In addition, there is the cookie ghostwriting, in which an external entity creates the cookie on behalf of another party and therefore its origin is unknown", highlights Srdjan Matic, Research Assistant Professor at IMDEA Software.

This paper also distinguishes between cookies by their duration: session cookies active only during the visit to the page or persistent cookies of short, medium or long duration.

Japan is the country with the lowest percentage of websites with cookies, with 77.2%, and South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia lead the ranking with almost 100%. Together, third-party cookies and third-party tracking cookies add up from about 30% in the case of Germany to 95% in the case of Russia.

The study shows that around 95% of the websites of international organizations set cookies and around 60% of these websites use at least one third-party cookie.

Matic explains that "There are no special measures to neutralize third-party cookies on these websites since 52% of the websites of international organizations set at least one cookie associated with a tracker".

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/07/11/governmental-websites-cookies-third-party-trackers/