Disabled Cookies Do Not Equal Privacy: NSA Muckraking
NATION/POLITICS
COMMENTARY
Ok folks, anyone out there who thinks that omitting site cookies will insure your privacy on the Web is slightly misinformed. Anyone making wild accusations of an illegal government data-mining conspiracy based on the placement of cookies is a freakin' idiot.
Information about where you come from and what Web pages you visit already exists in a Web server's log files and could also be used to track browsing habits (see this and this for references), cookies just make it easier.
Now that we have that all cleared up, I have yet to find any reference to a law passed by Congress that makes the use of cookies on government Web sites "illegal." Then again, I don't have access to LexisNexis. I have, however, run across a couple of departmental policy statements that eschew the use of cookies. If anyone can link us up to a federal law, that would be helpful.
So, this all begs the question, are the folks involved with the ranting-cookie issue just misinformed so as to not fully vet the story, or do they simply think Americans are freakin' idiots?
NEWSBYTE
Spy Agency Removes Illegal Tracking Files
(AP) The National Security Agency's Internet site has been placing files on visitors' computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal rules banning most files of that type.
The files, known as cookies, disappeared after a privacy activist complained and The Associated Press made inquiries this week. Agency officials acknowledged yesterday that they had made a mistake. Read full story.
TENSION: Eat your cookies
GRAVITY: Half reported
Global Tags: Washington DC, News and politics, News, Politics, Current Events, Current Affairs, Life
COMMENTARY
Ok folks, anyone out there who thinks that omitting site cookies will insure your privacy on the Web is slightly misinformed. Anyone making wild accusations of an illegal government data-mining conspiracy based on the placement of cookies is a freakin' idiot.
Information about where you come from and what Web pages you visit already exists in a Web server's log files and could also be used to track browsing habits (see this and this for references), cookies just make it easier.
Now that we have that all cleared up, I have yet to find any reference to a law passed by Congress that makes the use of cookies on government Web sites "illegal." Then again, I don't have access to LexisNexis. I have, however, run across a couple of departmental policy statements that eschew the use of cookies. If anyone can link us up to a federal law, that would be helpful.
So, this all begs the question, are the folks involved with the ranting-cookie issue just misinformed so as to not fully vet the story, or do they simply think Americans are freakin' idiots?
NEWSBYTE
Spy Agency Removes Illegal Tracking Files
(AP) The National Security Agency's Internet site has been placing files on visitors' computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal rules banning most files of that type.
The files, known as cookies, disappeared after a privacy activist complained and The Associated Press made inquiries this week. Agency officials acknowledged yesterday that they had made a mistake. Read full story.
TENSION: Eat your cookies
GRAVITY: Half reported
Global Tags: Washington DC, News and politics, News, Politics, Current Events, Current Affairs, Life
posted by Steven Moyer at 4:46 PM
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