Thursday, May 09, 2002

no more cookies?
A cookie is the name of a type of file that can help track a person's travels across a web site. A new technology has been announced that might make cookies obsolete. The use of cookies has made many people browsing the web nervous, and concerned about their privacy rights. This new software may make them even more nervous:
It has, as the features list makes clear, great privacy-invading potential. The "sensors" it uses:
- can be individually customised for any web visitor;
- can collect information rather than return pre-downloaded data.
- can be reconfigured remotely;
- are difficult to detect and delete;
- can be used to block access to sites, documents, data, emails, etc., based on content,
- can be preferentially customised for each user.
The software is not yet quite ready for commercial release. This technology that holds the ability to bring more security and control also appears to hold the promise of more potential abuse, enabling someone to remotely monitor a web site visitor's keystrokes.

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