Digital field may be first trade wars battleground

The survey showed that three-quarters of citizens believe that internet service providers such as Google and Facebook should not have the right to prevent access to their services if users refuse to store identifiers, such as cookies, on their equipment.
There has been a wide practice of locating cookies which track computer users’ preferences and activities, without their consent or knowledge. Popular browsers like Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer placed them anonymously for years without alerting users. More recent practices, to put the onus on users to opt out, are equally invasive of privacy and data protection.