Confidential AG’s Website Uses Cookies
The city auditor general’s office website carries a cookie consent banner, used commonly in business to collect personal information on website users.
Otherwise known as a cookie popup or a cookie consent notice, they are usually used for navigation purposes or so that advertisers can track web browsing so that these advertisers can provide relevant ads to the user. Advertisers glean personal information from those cookies.
The auditor general’s office website carries no advertising. The user would not be shown a cookie consent banner if cookies are only used for basic website navigation.
Other common uses for cookies are tracking page views, pre-filling forms, building user profiles, targeting user advertising and measuring ad-campaign effectiveness. Cookies, in doing this, collect personal user information.
The disclaimer on the cookie consent banner reads as follows:
This website uses cookies to enhance usability and provide you with a more personal experience. By using this website, you agree to our use of cookies as explained in our Privacy Policy.
The user has one choice in the banner, that being “Accept”. If the user does not click the Accept button, the popup box remains on the page rendering the website very difficult to use. Cookies remember the user the next time they come to a website and automatically bypass the banner but continue to collect information on visitors.
There is no “Reject” button on the banner.
The banner says you agree to the use of cookies as explained by the AG’s Privacy Policy. If accepted, that could be used as a waiver. The hotkey on the banner that would take you to the Privacy Policy does not work. Thus, the user must agree to allow cookies without easily seeing the Privacy Policy before acceptance.
If users go to the confidential fraud-and-waste hotline page, they can only use it by accepting cookies in the consent banner. Those cookies would working on subsequent visits to the AG site and most likely in other personal internet browsing.
The auditor general is the internal investigating arm of the City of Ottawa. It generally looks at mismanagement and wrong-doing at the city. The Auditor General is part of the city’s senior management team of department heads and top executives in the municipal public service.
The City of Ottawa’s website, separate from the AG’s site, does not appear to use a cookie consent banner. Whether it uses cookies beyond basic navigation is unknown.
Almost all websites that carry ad network advertising use cookies for personal tracking. The AG’s office website does not carry advertising but uses cookies.
The AG’s office disclaimer says: “This website uses cookies to enhance usability and provide you with a more personal experience.”
Good user experience can be done without using most cookies and without using tracking cookies. It is unknown which cookies the AG’s office uses or how they are used.
The City of Ottawa was unable to provide a response to this story Wednesday morning.
This is the display that greets first-time users to the city auditor-general’s website.
This is what users of the city fraud and waste hotline see on their first visit.
Ken Gray
For You:
Pay Councillors What They’re Worth: CRERAR
City Hall Can’t Fill A Pothole: BENN
Tierney ‘Not Impeachable’, uOttawa Prof Verdict
Bookmark The Bulldog, click here
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– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
And therein lies the rub we all run into now that we are using our computers for banking, online purchases, social networking, and on and on, etc. On one side of the coin is convenience which must be weighed against the other side of the coin, security and privacy. Welcome to the new age ladies and gentlemen. Once you start, there’s no going back!
Do you use one or at least take advantage of whosis? As an aside sorry another leftist talk show host Howard Stern has had his contract ended. #readtheroom
The Ottawa Police site is much more problematic.
Ken,
This looks to me like a story that should have been held until the AG’s office could get back to you or refusing to do so. Without some detail it’s all speculation. You obviously know that cookies can be benign. The uses made by advertisers only are a worry IF they are enabled.
The website is broken. The button doesn’t work. I guess you’ve reported that. Good.
How much time did they get to reply?
Thanks for letting us know,
Jake
Jake, the key word in the “confidential fraud and waste hotline” phrase is confidential. Confidentiality should not be limited to the AG promising to not reveal the identity of who told them. It starts with the AG’s office not knowing who gave them the tip. That cookies could reveal identifying info (e.g. IP address) renders the reference to confidential misleading. For those with a basic understanding of cookies (e.g. even old guys like Ken and me) acts as a deterrent for using this basic tool.
Chances are that, like so many things down at city hall, the presence of cookies falls under “but this is how we always do it”, which can best be translated as “we couldn’t be bothered to think about the specific use”.
Ron, I certainly agree that the website should be confidential and that its setup is problematic. Hopefully Ken’s enquiry will push them to fix that.