Help with question about web page access

From: David Holland <dholland_at_woh.rr.com>
Date: Wed Aug 18 07:52:22 2004

On Tue, 17 Aug 2004, Ashley Carder wrote:

<much snippage>

>
> > Jerome Fine replies:

<snip>

>
> > In any case, cookies are REQUIRED and are used, though
> > I have no idea for what purpose! Can anyone who has used
> > cookies suggest a good reason for their use?
>
> They're basically used to place a small piece of data on the user's
> computer so that it can be retrieved later, possibly during the
> same session or perhaps on subsequent visits to the site. They
> can last only for the duration of the current web session, or can
> be set to have an expiration date some time in the future. You
> can delete them yourself if you the folders to look in.
>
> Lots of people seem to be scared of cookies, but IMO they're harmless.
> They just contain a little piece of data that can be written and
> retrieved by the web site during the current session or in the
> future. They have a multitude of uses.

The only (IMHO) valid reason to be concerned about cookies has to
do w/ advertising. Many (all?) of the banner ad sites aren't
just a image banner ad, they are a bit of HTML code that reads a
cookie, possibly stores a cookie, and displays the image.

The reason people get concerned about cookies, is now your
participating in a advertising study, without one's knowledge
nor consent.

Many of those cookies are unique identifiers too, so now the
advertising can collect your browsing habits, and sell them to
other marketing droids.

Frankly, I'm not too keen on someone else (effectivly) standing
over my shoulder while I surf the web, and watching the sites
I go to.

Granted those advertising/marketing droids can only watch your
browsing on "participating" sites, but w/ the prevalence of
adserver.com, advertising.com, 2o7.net, its still more than
I'd like.

IMHO/YMMV/Std. Disclaimers may apply/Etc.

David
Received on Wed Aug 18 2004 - 07:52:22 BST