> Insignificant: Virtually nothing the public is concerned about hinges on specifically how client data is stored, except for lawyers trying to get around cookie laws or to deceive through the text and UI of cookie consent pop-ups.
IMO, your exception is what makes the distinction significant. Defining a cookie two different ways gives companies a powerful new tool for purposefully misleading and manipulating end users.
Yes, many users are already confused. But if we actually make it acceptable to define cookies more broadly (but only when it's convenient for those in power), we're going to make the situation much worse.
Right, if anything, we should campaign for the technical definition of "Cookies" to encompass everything as well and just call the old thing legacy HTTP cookies or whatever when you need to be specific.
IMO, your exception is what makes the distinction significant. Defining a cookie two different ways gives companies a powerful new tool for purposefully misleading and manipulating end users.
Yes, many users are already confused. But if we actually make it acceptable to define cookies more broadly (but only when it's convenient for those in power), we're going to make the situation much worse.