-Caveat Lector- http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,32857,00.html Emails Can Betray Personal Info Wired News Report 9:20 a.m. 3.Dec.1999 PST Privacy groups are petitioning the FTC to address what they call a major privacy concern involving email software. They took action after software analyst Richard Smith reported a loophole that enables unsolicited emails to retrieve personal information using anonymous Web cookies. "Web browser cookies and email messages don't mix," said Smith, who frequently analyzes software for security and privacy problems. Cookies are anonymous identifiers collected by Web sites from a user's browser to identify return visitors. "Web surfing is supposed to be anonymous, but with the cookie leak security hole, companies can easily match our email addresses to the Web sites we visit." Smith said that the data tracking is set up by sending a Web page in email. The messages' HTML code contains enhanced cookie information that includes the recipient's email address. Anyone using Netscape Communicator, Qualcomm Eudora, and Microsoft Outlook is vulnerable, since those programs can view messages as HTML pages and store cookies without the recipient's knowledge. Using code that embeds graphics into the email message, the sender can easily cause the recipient's email address to be sent along with a cookie to Web sites they visit, Smith said. Smith sent a report of his finding ( http://www.tiac.net/users/smiths/privacy/cookleak.htm ) to the FTC earlier this week. The Consumer Project on Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the Center for Media Education joined Smith in calling for the loophole to be closed. Copyright � 1994-99 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved. *** NOTICE: Per Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest, for Fair Use research and educational purposes, only. *** Ref: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml **** . DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
