NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> A Proposal for Browser Data
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> A Proposal for Browser Data
Patrik Nilsson (patrik_at_patrik.com)
Wed, 15 Jan 1997 11:43:14 +0100
Mon, 13 Jan 1997 11:14:18 -0800 Mark J. Welch wrote:
>The point is not to design something that works for my business
>-- it's to design something that works for consumers. Something
>to simplify the consumer's life without invading privacy. As you
>note, cookies are designed to PREVENT sharing of data between
>servers, not to permit it.
Note that in Normandy, Microsoft has deliberately integrated a way to
bypass the parts of the cookie specs that are supposed to prevent sharing
data between servers (from Microsoft's ASP documentation):
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The use of GUIDs to identify users depends on a persistent user-state
mechanism known as "cookies." As a privacy precaution, one Web site cannot
see any cookies provided by another. This means that two sites cannot share
the same user GUID without a special mechanism to synchronize them. GUID
sharing provides that special mechanism.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
And, as I understand it, Firefly's Passport licensing is based on another
mechanism to do this.
So much for respecting privacy...
>You mentioned not using storage space at the user end -- but note
>that it would be a fixed amount of space for a relatively small amount
>of data. I'm not proposing that my browser store all my Firefly
>preferences and such -- just the most common data that every
>damn server makes me fill in to register. All I want is a protocol
>with some basic defined fields (firstname, lastname, mail_address,
>city,state,zipcode,country,telephone,email_address,web_site, etc.)
>and PERHAPS the ability to extend with more optional fields.
Microsoft tried to do something like this in Microsoft Payment and Address
Selector. (http://www.microsoft.com/intdev/security/pay/) Seems like they
gave it up though - they are not even using it on their own pages.
I believe that the thing to really watch if you want this kind of
functionality is LDAP. Automated address lookup is typically done through a
directory server.
LDAP is the widely accepted internet standard for directory services.
This year we'll see the first clients - browsers as well as email programs
- supporting LDAP.
There's even a part of the LDAP specifications specifically included to
define standard "Business Card" type information.
Some general LDAP stories:
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,6383,00.html
http://www.inquiry.com/publication/cmp/NWC/19960615/NWC19960615S0014.html
I don't have the url:s for the LDAP pages at Netscape or Microsoft, but if
you search their servers, you'll find them.
Patrik
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