New rules to let Europe web users turn off cookies

People surfing European websites will be able to turn off the cookies used to spy on their Internet habits under rules hammered out by the region's online advertisers, the Brussels-based Internet Advertising Bureau Europe announced. "It will change significantly how the Internet will look and how people interact with ads," said Kimon Zorbas, vice president of the industry group that developed the new rules. Under the agreement, web ads will carry a clickable icon labeled "AdChoices" that will let users change their privacy settings so they are no longer profiled for advertising purposes.