A number of web service providers, including Walt Disney’s websites, are being sued due to what may be their illegal use of Locally Stored Objects (LSOs).
Flash Cookies, as LSOs are more commonly known, have the ability to store user information over long periods of time. Disturbingly, they can do with without notifying the computer user, and without leaving any traces of their presence.
It seems that these LSOs have been used by websites to track visitors’ behaviour in breach of those websites’ privacy policies. A suit has been filed in the US District Court in Los Angeles against Walt Disney Internet Group, Clearspring Technologies, Warner Bros. Records, and a number of other entities. All of these companies are alleged to have shared these cookies.
The methods by which a user can remove LSOs is neither easy nor evident, and removing ordinary cookies can be overridden through the use of LSOs, which can reinstate previously deleted cookies.