I replicated what Twila found. Now, cookies, especially session cookies, aren't anywhere near as awful as many people think, but there are two points worth noting: (1) CDC appears to be violating a White House directive from well over a year ago; (2) there's no reason a government site should reject your requests for information if you turn off cookies. Also see: "Feds' hands caught in cookie jar, violating White House order" http://www.politechbot.com/p-01247.html -Declan --- Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 10:45:19 -0500 To: declanat_private From: Twila Brase <twila@cchc-mn.org> Subject: CDC requires cookies Dear Declan: It seems the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has decided not to give the public access to archived information unless citizens allow cookies to be set. Without allowing a cookie to be set, their advanced search site refused to provided requested documents: http://www.phppo.cdc.gov/cdcRecommends/AdvSearchV.asp I tried it any number of ways without success. There was no message even saying that a cookie was required--probably because doing so is not allowed. The site merely reloaded and came back with cleared search fields, and no additional information. Only when I allowed the cookie to be set, did I receive a list of all the documents relating to my search criteria. Perhaps federal health department officials on your list would like to respond. I don't believe that they can require personal identification for access to public documents. Twila Brase, R.N. President Citizens' Council on Health Care 651-646-8935p ************************************************************* A citizens resource for designing the future of health care ************************************************************* Citizens' Council on Health Care 1954 University Ave.W., Suite 8 St. Paul, MN 55104 651-646-8935 phone 651-646-0100 fax http://www.cchconline.org ************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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