[Previous] [Next] [Index] [Thread]

Re: Smart Fine Print



>But then you don't get to take advantage of the good uses of cookies.   
 It's
>nice , sometimes, to have sites recognize users.  If you really wanted   
to
>keep doubleclick cookies out, you could create dummy entries in the
>cookie.txt for the site, up to the maximum number per site.  But this   
seems
>like way too much work.  Just set netscape's "Ask me before setting a
>cookie" and decide whether or not you like it.
>--
>Jonathan Cardozo
>cardozo@roguewave.com
>webMaster of http://www.roguewave.com/

Another alternative would be to change the value of the Doubleclick   
cookie.

You might accidently hit on the value that they have already given to   
another person, and so confuse them (unlikely if they record the domain   
associated with the cookies that they give out), get someone else's   
advertising and mess up their statistics.  Or you might get a value that   
they hadn't given out at all... in which case, their computers might   
crash.

Last year when I looked a little at user modeling, my supervisor   
impressed on me that you always have to tell the person you are modeling   
what you know about them and what assumptions you make about them.  You   
should further allow them to modify that information.

There are two reasons for these strictures. The first is the obvious   
privacy concern.  The second is that the user is usually best able (and   
quite often willing) to model themselves.

Doubleclick does not allow you to see what information they have   
collected about you.  As their site is an advertisment for their ability   
to collect information and model net-users, I would have expected some   
kind of dynamic demonstration of this...

 --
John J. Lehmann aka lehmannj@saatchi.com.au
Saatchi & Saatchi Australia, New Media
/* note: find a disclaimer to insert here */