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Smart Fine Print
The main thing offensive about cookies and cookie sharing is not that these
features link information about the user's usage patterns (some users care
about this, some don't) but that they undertake this important
activity without the user's knowledge or consent.
For example:
> And when you click on it, you go to the connected site via DoubleClick (I
> think - do they use HTTP Status Code: Found 302 to redirect the browser?)
Even many of us technically proficient people seem to be in the dark
about this one; it is a well-hidden feature.
> Woohoo. Maybe I'll do that here to Australians :)
This is not funny, it is offensive. Users may not usually be able to
detect redirects, or find or trace their cookies, but the nature of the
Internet community is such that users will at some point figure out
that these pieces of smart fine print hidden inside their software
have not been written in their interest. The result will not be
intelligent use of software and services (for by hiding features
important to the user we have worked against that), but a crude
judgement -- that Internet software and services that use cookies
are often duplicitous, designed for unscrupulous vendors rather than
for end customers, and not to be trusted with either one's personal
information or one's business. The big gains to be made from
client-side persistence could be lost.
Nick Szabo
szabo@netcom.com
http://www.best.com/~szabo/
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