Cookies Invading Our Privacy :: Internet Technology Computers

Cookies Invading Our secretivenessCookies now constitute a real threat to personal privacy, but they atomic number 18 perfectly legal. A cookie is a tiny file that a Web grades crop on the users hard drive when the user accesses the sack page. Each cookie has a specific identification number. The cookie stop gather personal information such as email addresses, dear names, mailing addresses, and phone numbers, and then it sends the information back to the entanglement station (Samborn 26). Whereas TV, radio, and print inscribe only demographics or neighborhoods, a cookie keeps demo of what an individual is actually looking at and doing on the net. As a result, Web site operators or companies ar able to build in truth(prenominal) detailed profiles from that behavior (Green 48). These profiles play a major role in online marketing. In the late(prenominal), marketers knew their customers just as a number, but when DoubleClick, an internet advertize comp either, bou ght out Abacus Direct, DoubleClick was able to combine its informationbases with the names and addresses form Abacus catalog customers. instantly web surfers washbowl no longer surf the net without their computers universe tagged to their names. (Quinn 63) Even more disturbing, hacks can now intercept the info from the cookie.With a specially constructed URL, a nag can read cookies from any(prenominal) domain because the special URL fools a computer into thinking that the hackers computer is the domain site. As things stand now, Federal laws are far from clear when it comes to what cookies can collect and how the information can be used. According to US Sen. Robert Torricelli, Congress has considered several privacy bills in the departed few years, but only one, the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act, has been passed (Samborn 27). This riddle is only going to escalate if something isnt done to limit what mesh sites and marketing agencies can collect from people surfing the Web.Cookies Invading Our Privacy Internet Technology ComputersCookies Invading Our PrivacyCookies now constitute a real threat to personal privacy, but they are perfectly legal. A cookie is a tiny file that a Web sites rear on the users hard drive when the user accesses the web page. Each cookie has a specific identification number. The cookie can gather personal information such as email addresses, full names, mailing addresses, and phone numbers, and then it sends the information back to the web site (Samborn 26). Whereas TV, radio, and print record only demographics or neighborhoods, a cookie keeps record of what an individual is actually looking at and doing on the net. As a result, Web site operators or companies are able to build very detailed profiles from that behavior (Green 48). These profiles play a major role in online marketing. In the past, marketers knew their customers just as a number, but when DoubleClick, an Internet advertizing company, bo ught out Abacus Direct, DoubleClick was able to combine its databases with the names and addresses form Abacus catalog customers. right off web surfers can no longer surf the net without their computers be tagged to their names. (Quinn 63) Even more disturbing, hackers can now intercept the data from the cookie.With a specially constructed URL, a hacker can read cookies from any domain because the special URL fools a computer into thinking that the hackers computer is the domain site. As things stand now, Federal laws are far from clear when it comes to what cookies can collect and how the information can be used. According to US Sen. Robert Torricelli, Congress has considered several privacy bills in the past few years, but only one, the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act, has been passed (Samborn 27). This trouble is only going to escalate if something isnt done to limit what Internet sites and marketing agencies can collect from people surfing the Web.