Re: errata for cookie spec

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> Matthew Rubenstein:
> [...]
> >        Domains' cookies should be partitioned from one another. However,
> >preventing a domain from sending its cookie to another domain's server for
> >parsing only forces the sender to use out-of-band communication between
> >servers - higher cost, especially in syncing the timing with the user's
> >navigation between the servers.
> 
> This higher cost and difficulty of syncing is not a bug, it is a feature!
> And this syncing is going to get more difficult still when we get country
> level proxies.
> 
> Servers have no business sharing information without the user's consent, and
> I therefore see not reason why sharing information in a sneaky way should be
> particularly cheap or easy.  If they want to share, let them embed the info
> in a link where the user can see it.

Exactly. The user-agent is the _user_ _agent_. Not the server agent.
Obviously the user-agent needs to give _some_ information to servers,
else they could not function. Cookies provide this. But the user-agent
should serve the interests of the user, and they are _not_ served by
allowing hidden tracking of users across sites. I can think of _no_
other application of the "container document from site A containing img 
sent out by a CGI from site B which also happens to set/retrieve cookies"
scheme. If one does arise, well the behavior should be configurable.

BTW, for those looking to avoid the all images on altavista, including
some from doubleclick.net which set/retrieve cookies _and_ get your query
sent to them, use this instead:

  http://altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=&text=yes

> 
> >Matthew Rubenstein                     North American Media Engines
> 
> Koen.
> 

- -- 
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------= 
Jeremey Barrett                                  VeriWeb Internet Corp.
Senior Software Engineer                         http://www.veriweb.com/

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Received on Friday, 7 February 1997 04:23:52 UTC