On Fri, 09 Nov 2001 21:20:29 EST, Oliver Petruzel <opetruzelat_private> said: > This brings to mind a question: has anyone collected a list of the most > revealing KNOWN cookies in the wild? Is there a resource (site) > available with a list for me to use in order to perhaps blacklist the > URL's personally? I often find myself studying my local cookies and > have noticed repeat offenders from very popular sites that I avoid now > because of this; and I believe such a public list would serve as a way > to prevent cookies from becoming too powerful or revealing. A cookie > reporting service possibly. Anyone with a link for this if it already > exists or with the energy to compile it yourself, go for it, and plz let > us know. A far better approach is to use software that blocks *all* cookies, and then have an exemption list for those sites that *YOU* visit that specifically need cookies in order to function. Remember - cookies as data harvesting tools only work because a large percentage of people allow cookies. If the *default* behavior of people was to tolerate only cookies that allow (for instance) session management of a single visit, or only retain very basic cross-session information, then the site operators wouldn't have much reason to use cookies. Something that's a *bigger* issue is probably the infamous "web bug", which usually shows up as a 1x1 transparent pixel. Now *THERE* is a area where a "black list" might be more useful (because you can have an <IMG> tag that points off-site to a tracking service, where the user may have said "only allow cookies from this server"). There's Unix software for all this at www.junkbuster.com. I have *NOT* tried their Windows software. It's not a *total* solution, but it's a start. -- Valdis Kletnieks Operating Systems Analyst Virginia Tech
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon Nov 12 2001 - 13:27:03 PST