Web Analytics: Waiting for the New Federal Government Cookie Policy

Is waiting for the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines on a new Federal Government cookie policy like waiting for Godot? One might not be blamed for thinking as much.

And in fact, you might say that it is. Public comments were taken in the summer of 2009, there was expectancy that an announcement would be made this past April 7 during the Open Government Initiative fanfare, and Vivek Kundra, the U.S. CIO, said recently at a Federal Government web managers meeting that a decision could be made next month.

While it is expected that persistent cookies will be allowed, there is equivalent expectation among Federal web managers whom I speak to that there will be accompanying "opt out" protocols, multiple tier for usage definitions, data expiration and approval rules, that will actually make it as — if not more — difficult than it is today to get anonymous visitor data.

After the public comment period over the summer, I'd expect that OMB had more content to sift through than they expected (classic data deluge scenario) before they could figure it all out. 

The Hot Button Questions

I've been a sometimes participant in the process — I've added my 2 cents during the commenting period and have provided opinions, clarifications and definitions when asked. But for the most part, I feel pretty much like an observer watching how Washington works and how policies get made. I guess just like any analysis, the more answers you find the more questions arise. Here are some of mine:

• What is the role and influence of the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a non-profit public interest group with a mission shaping government policies on Internet issues?
  Ari Schwartz, the organization's COO is credited with developing the paper that kicked off the discussion in May 2009. He sits on the board of the Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board (ISPAB) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the the federal technology agency that works with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements, and standards. Google also sits on the ISPAB as do other consulting, IT firms, universities and government agencies.
• CDT co-wrote a set of recommendations with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in May 2009 that outlines the disclosure, data retention, opt out measures described above, as well as requiring that Federal agency Inspector Generals verify their privacy compliance. Is this the blueprint for the new cookie policy?
• Mr. Schwartz wrote in a blog post on January 9, 2009 "that government should be creating policies to encourage this innovation, rather than railroading the issue with an inflexible mandate (i.e., the current policy) or eliminating the government-wide policy altogether (a possible alternative)" He goes on to say:         

"1) There are a growing number of cases where information about an individual may not be directly personally identifiable, but where the individual has a privacy interest based on the use of the information. IDs of all kinds (including those used in state management mechanisms) and location information are two prominent examples. Today, there are few privacy rules in government to cover these kinds of information."

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Is waiting for the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines on a new Federal Government cookie policy like waiting for Godot? One might not be blamed for thinking as much.