Persistent Identification Elements

Aka super-cookie - a shared object.

May 2005, I first got wind of these which is a way to bypass measures taken such as deleting your history, cookies and browser cache to avoid ad and marketing spyware tracking your Internet web surfing. They are supposed to be able to embed themselves deeply into your computer more-so than the normal cookie - I suppose that means without your permission.

Just this week I was reading an article about how MS with IE7 (just released) is going to do just that - i.e. delete history, cookies and cache automatically - which brings to mind whether it is just file deletion or file wiping like writing zeroes. Anyway, the term PIE was again mentioned, since adware and marketing types are trying to stay ahead of the curve in terms of what they do to track you on the Web since they will no longer be able to count on history, normal cookies and cache probes to track you.

Apparently, MacroMediaFlash had been doing its part to be able to disable the shared object capability with its Settings Manager found here:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html

-- Tom