Counting cookies

TL;DR

The following speed tests fully comply with the cookie law because they do not use cookies at all: Astound speedtest, Cloudflare, Fast, Google Fiber, Internet Speed at a Glance and LibreSpeed.

 

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Method of measurement
  3. Speed tests to test
  4. The measurements
  5. Conclusions
 

Introduction

This test examines the extent to which speed tests comply with the cookie law by counting the number of cookies used.

After all, if a website does not use cookies at all, it automatically complies with the cookie law.

 

Method of measurement

For this test we visit the homepage of the speed test in Google Chrome and then count the number of cookies found with Get cookies.txt LOCALLY.

Speed tests without cookies are considered privacy friendly.

All other speed tests are further investigated in another test.

 

Speed tests to test

Because this is a relative simple test, the unique speed tests as collected at ZOMDir will be tested.

 

The measurements

  1. Astound speedtest 0 cookies
  2. Bandwidth Place 8 cookies
  3. Bredbandskollen 1 cookie
  4. Broadband Speed Checker 4 cookies
  5. Cloudflare 0 cookies
  6. Comparitech 9 cookies
  7. DSLReports 6 cookies
  8. Fast 0 cookies
  9. Fireprobe 12 cookies
  10. Google Fiber 0 cookies
  11. Internet Speed at a Glance 0 cookies
  12. LibreSpeed 0 cookies
  13. M-Lab 3 cookies
  14. Meter.net 2 cookies
  15. N Perf 7 cookies
  16. Ookla Speedtest 16 cookies
  17. Open Speed Test 3 cookies
  18. SamKnows 4 cookies
  19. SpeedCheck 3 cookies
  20. SpeedOf.me 28 cookies
  21. SpeedOf.me API Sample Page 6 cookies
  22. SpeedSmart 4 cookies
  23. Speedtest4.PHP 2 cookies
  24. TestMy.net 8 cookies
  25. Toast 16 cookies
  26. Which Broadband Speed Test 2 cookies
  27. Xfinity xFi Speed Test 0 cookies
 

Conclusions

Based on the above measurements, we conclude that:

  1. The minimum number of cookies is 0
  2. The maximum number of cookies is 28 (SpeedOf.me)
  3. The average number of cookies is 5
  4. The median of the number of cookies is 3

There seems to be 7 speed tests without cookies. However, Xfinity xFi Speed Test asks the user whether it is okay for cookies to be used. If you answer yes, 6 cookies will be placed. If you say no, the speed test works perfectly. That's neat!

The speed tests below fully comply with the cookie law because they do not use cookies at all:

  1. Astound speedtest
  2. Cloudflare
  3. Fast
  4. Google Fiber
  5. Internet Speed at a Glance
  6. LibreSpeed