<html>
<font size=3>And just HOW will Big Brother do a marketing profile of you
based on a cookie that is just an ID# and available ONLY to the web site
that originated it?<br>
<br>
Big Brother is doing marketing profiles on you because you have a home
address. Does that mean home addresses are security risks? They are if
you think about it. But the risk is low and the benefits of having a home
address are very high.<br>
<br>
The public and the media have a perception about cookies that is WRONG.
Not oversensitive, not overworried, wrong.<br>
<br>
A cookie is handed out by a web server and stored in your browser. That
cookie is ONLY given back to the same web site that originated it. If a
site is written minimally well it will only give an ID, a token that is
meaningless outside of the context of the site's own database. Cold
Fusion takes it one step further and assigns each CFID a CFTOKEN, which
is a code based on the ID, which you can think of as a username and
password. If they dont match, you are trying to hack into a session that
isn't yours and it is rejected.<br>
<br>
So, the only marketing profile anyone can do on you is based on their own
database of your identity, including purchases, volunteered preferences,
etc. They can do this with or without a cookie. A form or URL variable or
even asking you to login every time you purchase something - it's all the
same. A site either identifies you or it doesn't. The cookie is just a
convenience.<br>
<br>
At 08:38 PM 9/20/00 -0700, Charles A. Lee wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite cite>Ron:<br>
<br>
At 03:43 PM 9/20/00 , you wrote:<br>
>....<br>
>Cookie-phobia has been on the rise lately, thanks to the MSIE
cookie-reading<br>
>hack (over-)publicized a couple of months ago.<br>
<br>
But more so (I'm hearing) because of the indignant reaction of the common
<br>
man who are finding out that Big Brother marketers want to compile a
<br>
marketing profile on them (and other such Big Brother uses).<br>
<br>
>I'd be curious to see statistics on the percentage of<br>
>cookie-disabled browsers out there... anyone got a link?<br>
<br>
In the "Cookie-disabled browser" category add users of
CookiePal who <br>
automate the picking and choosing of which cookies to accept and
which to <br>
reject, making rejection a much less painful experience than setting a
<br>
browser option that either nags you morning noon and night or give you no
<br>
insight at all. From the feedback I'm getting, it's a rapidly
growing <br>
segment of the market.<br>
<br>
In my opinion, the best way to overcome Cookie-avoidance is to author a
<br>
page that explains to the rejecting surfer exactly what the cookie
contains <br>
and why, and what the exact consequences of the cookie rejection
are. An <br>
informed surfer would no longer need to fear the unknown.<br>
<br>
I'd hazard a guess that most marketing profilers won't do this because
they <br>
don't want their "resources" to fully understand just how much
of a <br>
detailed label they are being stamped with.<br>
<br>
Let's have Ben Forta write a book in it: "The Scarlet
Cookie"<br>
<br>
<br>
Charles A. Lee<br>
<a href="http://www.psn.net/~calee" eudora="autourl">http://www.psn.net/~calee</a><br>
<br>
Webmaster, Tucson Computer Society<br>
<a href="http://www.aztcs.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.aztcs.org</a><br>
<br>
========================================<br>
= "This project is so important,
=<br>
= we can't let things that
are =<br>
= more important interfere with it." =<br>
= -Ad/Marketing Manager,
UPS =<br>
========================================<br>
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