- From: Phillip M. Hallam-Baker <hallam@ai.mit.edu>
- Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 14:38:33 -0500
- To: 'Steve Madere' <madere@dejanews.com>, "http-wg@cuckoo.hpl.hp.com" <http-wg@cuckoo.hpl.hp.com>
>The "login" model is a serious step back in privacy. Suddenly, we not >only know it is the same person that was here earlier, we know it is a >particular person with a particular email address etc. I disagree. The user is at least aware that they are revealing information about themselves. What is so offensive about cookies is that no steps were taken to inform the user of their implications. Indeed little effort appears to have gone into thinking through those implications. Attempting to bludgeon the user into accepting cookies by putting up a noisy dismiss box each time it is recieved is a fraudulent method of providing "choice". The user is forced to "pay" by dismissing the box each time. There should either be a switch to turn them off entirely or some means of selecting which to allow and which not to. I regard the various promisses from the vendors on this as sophistry. If they were worried about user privacy then they would have implemented this long ago. I'll just point out that Microsoft voluntarily entered into an agreement to abide by the terms of the European data privacy laws. I don't believe that cookies meet those laws. Phill
Received on Tuesday, 18 March 1997 11:51:30 UTC