Thursday
Aug 28th
| Big Brother Now Eats Cookies |
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| Written by John McCarthy Director LeadSure | |||||||
Page 1 of 5  John McCarthy talks about Internet privacy, and asks do we have any privacy when connected to the internet. He then looks at what safeguards and protection we can use to protect our privacy, and asks if these measures are adequate or have we given the keys away without knowing it.
Introduction Cookies are used and transmitted when visiting web sites. They allow for the personalisation of web sites to individuals visiting them by storing information on the user's computer. The server reads this information when the site is revisited. The transmission of these cookies is often transparent and this information can be passed to other organisations without the knowledge or consent of the user. This paper focuses on the history and development of cookies, who would want this information and for what purpose; what protective measures are in place and the future of privacy measures for the Internet. This information is derived from researching the history of the development of cookies, and by examining the findings of organisations and institutions that attempt to regulate privacy on the Internet. The results show that the use of cookies by third party organisations is cause for concern and web browser development does not always address the issues of privacy as a primary motive. There is a philosophy by some organisations using cookies that as regulations change so will the methods they use to obtain information and use cookies. The conclusion is that there is very little privacy on the Internet. Cookies Cookies are data text files that are clandestinely placed on your computer. They tell the server we are visiting if we have been there before and if so how many times. They can assist in filling out forms by remembering who we are. In the real world of shopping we make contact with another human and they can remember us and cookies attempt to emulate this behaviour by storing information about us so we can have a personal experience when visiting a site. This is what a cookie looks like DefaultSite UK www.expedia.com/ 1024 668827648 115318781 5036829 499867* I found it on my computer in the cookies folder (c: windows\cookies) and it shows that at some time I have been to a site called expedia.com presumably to arrange a holiday. It also tells us that I visited the UK site but the long string of numbers has no meaning to me. This information is useful to the server that placed it there. Using this number to be able to match it with a database containing information about me so that if I fill out a form then some of the fields will be already filled in saving me the drudgery of endlessly filling out forms. Great! A very good idea, not only does it fill out forms it remembers me, gives me a personal greeting. The site knows what I have bought and when, how much I spent, what time of day and my method of payment. |
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