At a meeting in Los Angeles last month, more than 100 companies from the music, consumer electronics and information technology industries finalized the standards.

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Dr Rosi Armstrong, from the Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology in Belfast, said that many cookies are very functional and useful but some can also build up a profile on people over time.

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Its strengths are in fields such as electronics, information technology and biotechnology.

ECONOMIST: Banyan

John Engler, Dean Garfield and Gary Shapiro, the leaders, respectively, of the Business Roundtable, Information Technology Industry Council and Consumer Electronics Association, said to attract more investment, the United States needs a different legal regime.

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And they will become increasingly prevalent (and also smaller) as information technology switches from pure electronics to so-called optoelectronics, in which light is employed alongside electrons for the carriage and processing of data.

ECONOMIST: Microelectronics