Fighting Federal Popups

Any federal employee or vendor who regularly visits .gov websites should be familiar with a popup message that reads something like this:

Thank you for visiting XYZ Agency. You have been randomly selected to take part in a survey to let us know what we are doing well and where we need to do better. Please take a minute or two to give us your opinions. The feedback you provide will help us enhance our site and serve you better in the future. All results are strictly confidential.

Up until Friday, the market research firm that generates these questionnaires was powerless to prevent the repeat visitors from continuously being bombarded with popups. This is because cookies, files that sites deposit on a visitor's computer to monitor return visits and online activity, were banned from federal websites in 2000 to protect people's privacy. But, on Friday, the White House issued a memo granting sites the go-ahead to use such persistent cookies - ones that track users over multiple visits - in accordance with certain restrictions.

The Obama administration lifted the ban to replicate the feel of commercial sites that attract users by remembering their favorite pages, usernames and other preferences. Case in point: On private sector sites, ForeSee Results, the company behind the federal surveys, uses cookies to keep count of how many times an individual visits to avoid peppering the person with popups.

"The main purpose is once someone has been selected to take a survey, they will not get invited again for a period of time, configurable at the site level, usually 90 days," said Larry Freed, president and chief executive officer of ForeSee Results. "Based on the revised policy, our federal government sites will now be able to take advantage of the persistent multi-visit cookies which will result in a better experience for the site visitors."