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Cookie Monsters and Online Goblins
How the Cookie Crumbles
You surf to your favorite online store which greets you, "Welcome back!"
It remembers both your name and your password and recommends a newly released
novel from one of your favorite authors. You put the book in your shopping
cart along with several you picked out last week. When you check out,
all you have to do is click "OK;" the store knows not only your address,
but your credit card number and what type of shipping you prefer for your
purchase. All these conveniences that make your online experience personalised
and seamless are because of little strings of code called "cookies."
What Are Cookies For?.
Cookies began as a Web designer's tool for learning more about site visitors
and helping a site remember your computer when you return. The name "cookie"
was adopted from computer science lingo and the term was introduced to
the general population courtesy of Web browsers. By using cookies, Web
programmers can find out which pages are visited most frequently and for
how long, which visits to the site are repeat ones, and which site the
visitor came from last. Shopping carts, server-chosen news stories, and
custom tailored stock reports are all possible because of cookies. As
the methods of tracking surfer behavior become increasingly sophisticated,
protecting your privacy online is becoming more difficult.
What Information Can Be Stored in Cookies?
- Your email address and password
- Your address and phone number
- Your employerčs name
- Your Internet-protocol (IP) address
- What operating system your computer is running
- What browser you are using
- What other pages you have viewed during that browser session
- Any other information you have provided to a Web site in response
to a request
How Does That Information Get There?
- Registration. People commonly enter their full names, addresses
and other information into a browser or other software when installing
it or "registering" it. That information can be accessible to snoops
who have a cookie to read all your cookies.
- Free gifts. Web sites frequently offer "sign-on" bonuses like
free T-shirts, CDs, and sweepstakes. When you fill out that form so
they can mail your prize, your address and other personal info is stored
in a cookie. At one time or another you might have filled out identifying
data, such as your income, age, or gender.
- Members only. Many sites now have "memberships" that ask you
for an impressive battery of personal facts before you can view material,
listen to music, or buy products. Then they remember terms you used
to search their site, they know which items you bought, and afterwards
use this information to offer you something youčre more likely to buy.
Change the Way Your Browser Handles Cookies
Using either Netscape or Internet Explorer, you have control over how
your browser reacts to cookies and access to the files on your hard drive
that store your cookies. You can delete these files if you like. Just
remember that if you don't shut off your cookies, those files will be
recreated or filled back up with new cookies as soon as you get back online.
You can adjust the way your computer handles cookies by changing your
browser settings.
Netscape stores cookies in a single text file. It's often located in
C:\Program Files\Netscape\cookies.txt. If you open this document, you
can view your cookies, choose which sites you want to keep cookies to,
or clear the whole thing out. To change the way Netscape handles future
cookies, go to the Edit menu in the browser, under Preferences/Advanced.
You have several options about how you'd like to handle cookies, from
accepting all to accepting none.
Internet Explorer stores each Web sitečs cookies in a separate folder
in C:\Documents and Settings\cookies. You can delete the individual folders,
or all of them. On IE, you can change your cookie settings on the Tools
menu of the browser, under Internet Options/Security/Custom. IE breaks
cookies down into two categories -- those stored on your computer permanently
and those used temporarily. Both kinds can be turned on, off, or you can
choose to be prompted when your computer encounters a cookie.
Disable ActiveX & Java
ActiveX and Java endanger your privacy and security online by allowing
access to local files, seizing cookies, or embedding malicious code within
emails and other files. You can disable them both to varying degrees in
the Edit menu under Preferences/Advanced (Netscape), and the Tools menu
under Options/Security/Custom (IE).
Use an Internet Security Program.
Using an Internet security product like Norton Internet Security helps
you handle cookies quickly and easily, while protecting your computer
against viruses, malicious ActiveX controls, Java programs and other dangerous
code. It also includes the new automatic LiveUpdate technology that checks
for new virus definitions when youčre online. Norton Internet Security
lets you keep personal information from being sent to Web sites without
your permission, control Internet cookies, and block banner ads to accelerate
download speeds.
Turn Off AutoComplete
Although it makes filling out forms online much quicker, "auto complete"
also makes those forms less secure because passwords sometimes show up
in plain text. You can elect to shut it off just for passwords, or to
shut if off completely. The settings for this tool are under the Edit
or Tools menu in your browser
Read the Privacy Statement
Most sites have Privacy Statements in which they tell you what they will
or will not do with your personal information. Many of them tell you they
will use your information for one purpose or another, but few people read
the fine print. See if the site has an "opt-out" button that will prevent
them from legally using your personal information.
Use Your Head
You can be a lot safer simply by being aware of how easy it is for people
to know what you are doing online. Ask yourself when you quickly jump
to fill in a form to become a "member" of a site, how is this information
going to be used? Who else may see this? Would it be okay if everyone
knew that I was involved with this site? In order to maintain even a little
bit of privacy online, youčve got to pretend that you have none. If you
follow these suggestions, while also being aware of your vulnerability
online, you can surf safely. .
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