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Remove ID string from third party opt-out cookie #5886

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mattab opened this issue Jul 26, 2014 · 4 comments
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Remove ID string from third party opt-out cookie #5886

mattab opened this issue Jul 26, 2014 · 4 comments
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Task Indicates an issue is neither a feature nor a bug and it's purely a "technical" change. wontfix If you can reproduce this issue, please reopen the issue or create a new one describing it.

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@mattab
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mattab commented Jul 26, 2014

The CNIL has suggested that it would be more readable and useful to remove the ID found in the 3rd party opt-out cookie. Having an ID in that cookie is not a problem but it's a bit confusing as it almost looks like it's a visitor ID (though its only a static ID that will be the same for all opt-out cookies).

More info: the reason an id appears there is that our cookies are signed. @robocoder do you think there is still a security advantage to signing our cookie? Maybe we could now safely remove the signing part of the Cookie class.
@mattab mattab added this to the Piwik 2.5.0 milestone Jul 26, 2014
@robocoder
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We sign the cookie to ensure the cookie was created by Piwik by a user who explicitly opted out. If you remove the ID, then third-party developers can easily spoof the cookie (e.g., via a browser extension).

You're welcome to remove the ID, but I think some users would prefer it be configureable and/or default to prevent spoofing.

@robocoder
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An alternative is to rename the cookie to something more innocuous, e.g., opt_out_confirmation.

@robocoder
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Either way, CNIL's suggestion has no weight. First, it's not an ID -- it isn't personal identifiable information that needs to be kept confidential. Second, removing it would allow spoofing, which would be counter to the principle of data security.

@mattab mattab modified the milestones: Current milestone, Future releases Aug 1, 2014
@mattab mattab added P: normal and removed P: major labels Aug 1, 2014
@mattab
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mattab commented Aug 1, 2014

Thanks for your input. I've moved out of backlog as this is low priority.

@mattab mattab added Task and removed P: normal labels Aug 3, 2014
@mattab mattab closed this as completed Apr 26, 2015
@mattab mattab added the wontfix If you can reproduce this issue, please reopen the issue or create a new one describing it. label Apr 26, 2015
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Task Indicates an issue is neither a feature nor a bug and it's purely a "technical" change. wontfix If you can reproduce this issue, please reopen the issue or create a new one describing it.
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