Spyware expert Ben Edelman today released new findings regarding which anti-spyware programs delete which cookies and under what circumstances that occurs.

“When affiliate cookies and tracking get deleted there is a direct negative impact on revenue for affiliates,” Edelman says. “That’s why it’s such an important issue.”

You may recall the uproar about cookie deletion last year when a flurry of research groups, including Burst Media, Jupiter Media and WebTrends, released reports stating that anywhere from 30 percent to 60 percent of users claimed to distrust cookies and deleted them frequently.

Some groups, such as researcher eMarketer and SafeCount.org, urged online marketers to let consumers know of the benefits of cookies.

The new report from Edelman - “Cookies Detected by Anti-Spyware Programs: The Current Status” - was prompted by Click2Customers CEO Vinny Lingham, who approached Edelman with a specific question about cookie removal. The report grew out of that research to include more data and was ultimately sponsored by Click2Customers. The full findings can be found here.

The hands-on testing of 11 of the most popular anti-spyware programs and their treatment of cookies from 50 advertising systems show when affiliate cookies are deleted and “there is an incredible divergence,” in the results, according to Edelman.

“I’ve found some striking trends in cookie removal. For example, some networks’ cookies are deleted by fully three quarters of the anti-spyware programs I tested, while others are not deleted by even a single anti-spyware scanner. Affiliates and networks will be pleased to see that Symantec and McAfee have joined Microsoft in choosing a default configuration that does not detect or block cookies. Not so for PC Tools, Trend Micros, LavaSoft and Webroot, which all delete 40 percent plus of the cookies I tested.”

Edelman says Google has developed tracking technology that is success in protecting user privacy and escaping anti-spyware.

“Google’s approach is particularly noteworthy — not detected by any anti-spyware programs, even as more than half of scanners tested flag the cookies Yahoo places for similar ad-tracking,” he says.

Edelman claims that Google uses an interesting cookie mechanism, which combines the “efficiency of third-party cookies (with easy and fast implementation by the network alone, without complicated merchant-specific integration) with some greater privacy protections (by partial data decentralization using limited-path cookie scope.”

Google’s approach also ends up randomizing cookie filenames, making it harder for some anti- spyware scanners to identify which cookies are Google’s, he adds.

“Google has taken the network out of the network,” Edelman says.

The overall conclusion, according to Edelman is that cookies are not that bad, a stance that might surprise many who have followed Edelman’s staunch anti-spyware position in the past.

“I don’t tell my mom to delete them,” he says.

What do you tell your mom about cookies? lisap@revenuetoday.com