Peter Sinclair: Virtual cookies can be either good or bad

By Peter Sinclair

I've said it before, but it can't be said often enough: the web is a vast unlocked diary into which you pour your secrets at your peril.

The prevalence of cyber-snooping and spyware of all kinds has really been sheeted home to the average surfer this year for it's only lately that the useful and unobtrusive cookie has been seriously abused as a device for the large-scale invasion of privacy.

I frequently get e-mail from bewildered newbies asking just what a cookie is and does. Gaylene is typical: "Should I leave 'cookies' on my computer or delete them? Exactly what are they? I am told that a 'cookie' links your computer with another and you don't know about it! Help, please."

Here goes: cookies are inherently neither good nor bad. They are just small bits of information placed on your hard drive by some websites you visit (you'll find them under Windows/Cookies, where you can delete the lot if you feel like it). They are very useful and a key component in the way the web works.

They are mostly used to establish data about your online behaviour in order to tailor an often-visited site to your needs - a good example is a site like CNN which registers your presence to give you personalised news and weather information based on where you live and what you want to know.

But, and this is where it gets nefarious, cookies can also be placed on your computer by webvertisers to record when your machine views a particular ad. Cookies placed by a third-party (that is, not the actual site you're visiting) are used "to measure web advertising or to better understand web usage and target advertising based on the resulting profiles."

Translation: they snoop on you and sell you stuff.

It's the anonymous third-party cookies that online privacy crusaders object to, since these are the ones that have a commercial interest in knowing about your surfing habits. Once they're recorded, you can be - and are - bought and sold just like any other commodity.

In the face of mounting uproar from surfers, Microsoft is finally moving.

Richard Purcell, its director of corporate privacy, last week announced the beta release of "new privacy-enhancing cookie-management features for Internet Explorer 5.5." Well, I suppose it's one way of making you upgrade.

To do so, visit the Microsoft site and your cookies will be dunked.

Internet Explorer currently defaults to allow cookie-creation (Tools/Internet Options/Security/Custom Level), but with Version 5.5 you'll be able to ask to be prompted in detail before letting a cookie snuggle into your hard drive, a feature Netscape currently lacks.

You'll be given a description of all cookies and their purposes, plus a clear distinction between first- and third-party ones. Even better, any time a 'persistent' third-party cookie (a type which lurks on your hard drive for a specified period and comes from a site different from the one you're currently visiting) is being served or read on your machine, a default setting will alert you so that you can deal with it.

New items will be found on the help menu to access privacy information, and if you decide you don't want to retain any cookies at all there's a new "Delete all cookies" button. Locally, these features will no doubt gratify Privacy Commissioner Bruce Slane.

Readers with an stubborn streak who can't be bothered upgrading right now may want to consider reader Liz Tomlin's suggestion of AdsOFF v2.0 instead.

Not only does it prevent the cookie and IP tracking used by advertisers to profile you and monitor your browsing, it also gets rid of irritating banner-ads and popup windows before they are downloaded.

Give them a medal, someone

Bookmarks

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This new engine from Adobe summarises more than a million web documents - don't worry, clicking doesn't automatically load the document (some PDF's are huge); instead, you will be shown a summary before you download or view on the Acrobat Reader (free download onsite).

Advisory: this really is an advance.

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Advisory: simple searches, information summaries, in-depth analysis.

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Advisory: the pick o' the pecs.

petersinclair@email.com


Pew Internet Reports

Adobe Search PDF

Impresario-online

Celebpecs.com

Privacy Commissioner