Hello Andrew
> Yum! I do hope you're going to talk about the biscuity kind...
Sorry, the Coookiemonster ate them all.
> ... sigh. Ah well. ;) Quick start: A cookie is a file which is
> stored locally on your computer.
In Voyager, these can be viewed and deleted using the cookie browser (in the
windows menu)
The cookie is related to a
> particular domain, so let's say you visit a page and tell it you want
> to browse with frames off. The page will 'set' a Cookie on your
> machine.
This keeps the "state", if you go shopping, the shop software may know which
cart is yours using a cookie.
In other instances, a cookie can hold your password, so you do not have to
log in each visit.
You might notice some urls have a lot of numbers in the url header, in many
cases the URL could be identifying you, much like a cookie.
The Cookie has 3 bits of information: The domain, the type
> of data and the data itself.
The data is quite limited, only two strings are allowed, some sites get over
this by sending several cookies. Your cookie number could call
up your file in a database on the site, so like your telephone number can
be a key to more information.
This woulld be covered by data protection legislation and in many countries
you have a right to ask to see the data held on you. A fee can be charged
for this.
> Obviously the Cookie can only have
> information which the website knows about you, eg if you typed your
> date of birth into a form, the website could store it on your computer
> and use the information later.
Not just "if you typed" information, some software follows you around the
site.
> You are now looking at www.yahoo.com, but
> the ad banner has grabbed your Cookie information, so it knows that
> you've been to Hotmail, and also that you like sports. Nasty, eh?
This is what the debate is about. Amazon's highly aclaimed customer service
is built around this style of data gathering and analysis. Look at
information about visiting England and you may be offered an English
cookery book.
In the sports example, you would be served up ads about trainers, football
videos, sports wear, making the web more relevant and personal to you.
Sensible retailers who understand about getting a response will make you
fantastic offers. Everyone wins.
> It's 99% unlikely that this is due to Cookies. > you are unlikely to
> enter your email address on "that kind of site", ie one full of ad
> banners.
Also the cost of analysing the cookies and linking them to addresses and
then having a spam written is too high, unless there are thousands of
cookies belonging to people who have relationship with the site.
>> There was nothing we did where *I* can see the e-mail address was aquired
>> so I am curious how this happened.
There are address sniffers available, but this is a different issue to
cookies.
Some spam states that you are receiving the spam because you visited a
website. This could easily be a lie to give the spam some legitimacy.
> Usenet (News) is the cause of a huge amount of SPAM.
One solution is to use a bigfoot address where there is a spam filter and
you can add your own filter using search terms like "mlm"
If you use forwarding, you can forward to bigfoot, them to your ISP address.
John
--
John Block Creative, marketing aware work which
Freelance Copywriter talks rather than blandly bores,
actively promotes your product,
International and aims to be the best
Welcomes Dollar and Sterling, in your market sector.
First Virtual. http://www.copywriter.co.uk [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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