Improving the robustness and privacy of HTTP cookie-based tracking systems within an affiliate marketing context : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

E-commerce activities provide a global reach for enterprises large and small. Third parties generate visitor traffic for a fee; through affiliate marketing, search engine marketing, keyword bidding and through organic search, amongst others. Therefore, improving the robustness of the underlying tracking and state management techniques is a vital requirement for the growth and stability of e-commerce. In an inherently stateless ecosystem such as the Internet, HTTP cookies have been the de-facto tracking vector for decades. In a previous study, the thesis author exposed circumstances under which cookie-based tracking system can fail, some due to technical glitches, others due to manipulations made for monetary gain by some fraudulent actors. Following a design science research paradigm, this research explores alternative tracking vectors discussed in previous research studies within a cross-domain tracking environment. It evaluates their efficacy within current context and demonstrates how to use them to improve the robustness of existing tracking techniques. Research outputs include methods, instantiations and a privacy model artefact based on information seeking behaviour of different categories of tracking software, and their resulting privacy intrusion levels. This privacy model provides clarity and is useful for practitioners and regulators to create regulatory frameworks that do not hinder technological advancement, rather they curtail privacy-intrusive tracking practices on the Internet. The method artefacts are instantiated as functional prototypes, available publicly on Internet, to demonstrate the efficacy and utility of the methods through live tests. The research contributes to the theoretical knowledge base through generalisation of empirical findings and to the industry by problem solving design artefacts

Online Privacy: How exposed am I?

Internet users are aware that their online activities such as online purchases, recently visited websites and perused products, etc. are tracked by marketers who use the information to customize their targeted advertising strategies. While some users find it convenient, others feel stalked and watched. Increasingly more governments are rushing to introduce privacy laws such as GDPR by European Union to curtail privacy intrusions with limited success. This research is aimed at providing an online privacy perspective based on privacy intrusion levels resulting from information seeking behavior of various tracking applications. This knowledge can enable targeted regulatory implementations, leading to better privacy protection outcomes, preventing undue hindrances on technological advancements. This research investigates privacy, based on the level of accessibility to person identifying data under different tracking use cases that have been experimentally established. Our work contrasts with perceived privacy, which has been discussed in previous research work