Federal Websites: Cookie Policy

During the Open Government Initiative outreach, Federal employees and the public have asked the Office of Science and Technology Policy questions about the federal government's policy on cookies. As part of efforts to create a more open and innovative government, the office is working on a new cookie policy and will want your input. The White House Office of Management and Budget is considering a three-tiered approach to the use of web tracking technologies on Federal Government websites: 1st - Single-session technologies, which track users over a single session and do not maintain tracking data over multiple sessions or visits; 2nd - Multi-session technologies for use in analytics, which track users over multiple sessions purely to gather data to analyze web traffic statistics; and 3rd - Multi-session technologies for use as persistent identifiers, which track users over multiple visits with the intent of remembering data, settings, or preferences unique to that visitor for purposes beyond what is needed for web analytics.