Online Privacy Concerns Associated with Cookies, Flash Cookies, and Web Beacons JANICE C. SIPIOR and BURKE T. WARD Villanova School of Business, Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania, USA RUBEN A. MENDOZA Erivan K. Haub School of Business, Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Web-tracking and information-gathering technologies, including cookies, Flash cookies, and Web beacons, offer marketers the opport- unity to collect a wealth of consumer information. The purpose of this article is to examine Web users’ privacy concerns associated with these tracking technologies. We first describe the capabilities of each of these tracking technologies. We then address whether the use of tracking technologies is an intrusion upon an expectation or right of privacy, within the United States and within the European Union. We conclude by offering directions for future research. KEYWORDS beacons, cookies, Flash cookies, information privacy concerns, Internet, online information privacy, privacy, Web tracking INTRODUCTION The Web is an attractive, but increasingly competitive, consumer marketing venue. According to a study undertaken by the Wall Street Journal, one of the fastest growing businesses on the Web is that of collecting data from online users (Angwin 2010). A new business model for the Web may be emerging: that of user surveillance, selling the data collected, and predicting their characteristics, preferences, and activities, in real time, to advertising and Web interaction companies (Angwin and McGinty 2010). While targeted advertising is increasingly important to electronic content providers, the vast majority of online users are concerned about their privacy in Web Address correspondence to Janice C. Sipior, Villanova School of Business, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Ave., Villanova, PA 19085, USA. E-mail: janice.sipior@villanova.edu Journal of Internet Commerce, 10:1–16, 2011 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1533-2861 print=1553-287X online DOI: 10.1080/15332861.2011.558454 1