VideoEgg settles Flash cookie lawsuit

The company did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement but will pay $850,000 into a fund to be distributed to research bodies interested in the area of online privacy.

Four plaintiffs will each receive $1,500 while solicitors fees are $206,000.

VideoEgg, now known as Say Media, follows web measurement firm Quantcast and Clearspring in settling complaints over the use of technology commonly referred to as ‘Flash cookies’, which can be used in place of browser cookies to track online behaviours.

Lawsuits were filed after Carnegie Mellon researchers published a paper showing how Flash cookies could be used to respawn previously deleted browser cookies, allowing behavioural tracking to continue against consumers’ wishes.

A Flash cookie complaint was recently brought against AOL while another targeting Specific Media was dismissed.