Re: Is Invasion of Privacy The Answer?

From: Michael Martinez <Michael_at_xenite.org>
Date: Fri 30 Mar 2001 15:32:04 -0600

DENISE TURNEY <RCampb3422_at_aol.com> WROTE:

>I bought a software package that allows businesses to get
>targeted snail mail address list. What I do NOT like about
>the software and didn't realize came with the package was
>that when I downloaded the software to my computer it
>embedded a cookie to my hard drive. I have tried removing
>it by deleting the software but haven't been successful.
>Each time I click to a site I hear a "click" sound and I
>know the software is following me around.

Cookies cannot be used that way. Ever. It is simply not a
part of the way the technology works. Your browser will
only report a cookie to one specific domain.

The way advertising networks track you is that the ads are
running software from the networks' servers. That is, one
domain is setting and updating the cookie across hundreds or
thousands of Web sites. Those Web sites are all members of
the network, running its ads on their pages. But only the
network server domain has access to your cookie.

Every time you delete a cookie the ad software ON THE SERVERS,
not your PC, will just create a new one. This will have the
effect of creating a new session account for you.

A cookie is just a way of keeping your place in the mob with
any given Web site that requires interaction with you. It's
like going to a flea market and being given a ticket from
every booth you visit. The ticket records how far into the
negotiations you've gotten with the vendors. When you go
back to a booth, the vendor asks you for your ticket. If you
don't give it to him, then he issues you another ticket and
starts the whole process all over again.

If you have software on your PC which is reporting your
activities to some site on the Web, it is NOT using cookies
to do that. There are, for example, banner bars from free
Internet Service Providers which simply send little messages
to the ISP server indicating what ads you've clicked on,
how long it's been since you clicked on an ad, etc. There
are also ratings network programs which track everything you
do and record that information (either locally or across the
net, but since I haven't joined one of those programs I only
have a vague idea of how they work).

What advertising networks can learn through their use of
cookies embedded in ads is probably a tremendous amount of
information, but generally speaking its only aggregate data.
There is no way that your browser is going to report
information to the ad networks which you don't explicitly
make available to them. You're usually just a number,
traversing from Web site to Web site, and it's up to you
whether you want to lay a false trail for them. A lot of
people do actually do that.


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Received on Fri Mar 30 2001 - 15:32:04 CST