Cookie Factory: thwart tracking and deceive advertisements
There was a time when cookies were just cookies. With the advent of the Internet, they have also become small trackers in browsers that must be accepted (or not) each time we open a page during a first visit. The result ? We are spied on in our daily surfing and studied like mice between each click that we have the misfortune to make. Today, sites probably know us better than our parents, except they mostly want to empty our wallets with targeted ads. Faced with the indigestion that threatens us and in order to protect our private lives, UNESCO has launched the initiative Cookie Factory, a brilliant tool to fool Internet pastry chefs !
The jar is full!
We leave traces on the internet, sure, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we want to be tracked and that our data is collected by GAFAM and others. This is also how we can end up being manipulated by what algorithms offer us on our visited pages. The justification for offering us an Internet more in our image to improve our user experience, no one believes in it. On November 24, UNESCCO therefore adopted a recommendation on the ethics of artificial intelligence in order to ” protect and promote human rights and human dignity “.
It is precisely with the aim of making us disappear from the web radars that it has therefore developed the Cookie Factory, a French invention that we owe to the DDB Paris agency and the Make me Pulse studio, which required more than 2 years of work.
UNESCO unveils The Cookie Factory: a Google Chrome plugin that generates fake cookies to deceive advertisements to browse incognito 🍪
More informations : https://t.co/Rneh6UJwDz pic.twitter.com/sUM9dhg6nn
– Creapills 💊 (@creapills) November 29, 2021
What it allows is quite simply to replace your cookies in browsers with those of another person who does not exist in the slightest. Your profile has fun with the algorithm of sites like YouTube, Facebook, Amazon and other greedy who then find themselves offering you things that have nothing to do with you. Suddenly, you may be believed to be a fan of polka, Michel Sardou and steam cooking. The dream, right? Yes, definitely, but how does it work?
Cookie Factory settings
Nothing very complicated with this Cookie Factory since it is a Chrome extension like the others that you will find on the store. As soon as you install it, it will change all the data that concerns you in the browser, whether your history, your favorites and any traces that you may have accidentally left. Before cleaning up, she will of course make a backup of your real data and cookies to allow you to reload them if necessary, with a single click. After erasing you, she will give you the choice between 36 pre-established profiles, each more eccentric than the next, from the hermit to the hypochondriac, including the fan of conspiracy theories and the witch.
If you feel the creative soul, you can even build your own fake identity. You choose your gender, age range, and four interests from 66 options.
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This done, two modes are then offered:
- Full impact which is the default and which also disconnects you from all your accounts (YouTube, Gmail, etc.) for maximum efficiency of the extension,
- The Low impact that won’t.
As soon as you start browsing again, you will be able to measure the impact on the pages since everything will be changed. Have fun switching between several profiles to check the effects which can be very funny.
What Internet is viewing on a witch browser? We let you discover for yourself!
