Cookies are a good thing when baked in an oven. They’re a potentially bad thing on the internet. Tracking is now a part of a virtual lives that it would seem just isn’t going away.

Should businesses be forced to stop tracking your movements on the Internet?

It sounds like a simple question. But judging by the growing despair among members of a diverse group assigned by a standards body to resolve just this issue, the answer is hardly clear. The task force itself is deeply divided; in a member survey completed Wednesday, half of respondents — albeit a minority of the entire working group — said the negotiations weren’t working and should be abandoned.