The Dreaded Cookie!

[jamesglewisf]

It's funny all of the hype that cookies get in the press these days. Most people hate them, and the most of the same people don't even know what they are.

Basically, a cookie is a small file stored on your computer by your browser software. The people who develop websites use these cookies to store information about your visit to their sites. For instance, DVDExpress.com uses them to store your wish list.

In other words, cookies are used by web developers to cater their site to your preferences and to make your visit to their site more enjoyable. This is not a bad thing.

vBulletin (the softare for these forums) uses cookies to store your unique user id number and your password if you are a registered member. If you have chosen in your profile, this will automatically fill in your username and password in any place where you need them. Cookies are used to track when you are online - if you have not chosen to be in privacy mode in your profile, your username will appear in the logged in users list. Lastly, cookies are used to track which posts are new since your last visit. It is recommend that you use these forums with a cookie-enabled browser. If you do not, you will have to type in your username and password every time you want to post, and every time you visit a private forum.

You may delete all cookies set in this forum by clicking on the log out link on the homepage.

[jamesglewisf]

Do you have a frequent buyer's card at the grocery store? It is used for the same purpose. My grocery store, Tom Thumb, has such a card. Here is the evil purpose: they track what my brand preferences are and then offer me coupons for competing brands. For instance, Huggies will pay Tom Thumb to give customers a Huggies coupon when they buy Pampers.

Are cookies and frequesnt buyer cards invasions of privacy or conveniences? It depends upon whom you ask. And if you don't like them, you can turn off cookies in your browser and cut up your frequent buyers cards. You'll just lose some convenience, but you can still browse both websites and grocery stores without them.

[blinc]

You know, I've often wondered about this.. why is it that once a site has recorded cookies on you, that it is stored on your computer over and over again, every time you visit a site? Perhaps someone would become rich, if they devised a way for websites to read if existing cookies already exist, so that the same information isn't placed in a person's computer, over and over. Ok, maybe I've got it wrong, but when I look in my cookies folder, I see different sites have recorded cookies on my visit, every day I've went in there. I'm assuming it's the same information that is being stored over and over... is that right?

[RoadRunner]

I love cookies. They make surfing the net so much more enjoyable, especially if you dunk them in milk.

[TWTCommish]

It's easy to read cookies and see if they're set...no problem. They're probably tracking you to see how many times you return, or something like that.

A police officer gave a small lecture to a handful of students (I was one of them) on Internet safety...she was fairly uinformed. She said that if you visit a site, the site can put something called a "cookie" on your computer, and they would then have your name, address, blah blah blah.

That's totally impossible...maybe it would be actually possible with something like AOL, but even that is far-fetched.

Sheesh.

[blinc]

What on earth? I've never heard of that. Why would AOL maybe have that ability?

[Debby]

Wow, guys....I finally understand what a cookie is! Thanks! I bet that's why I had so mnay problems logging onto my favorite sites when I had my old computer, as it had very limited hard drive space...it was old, and so I had to go in and delete a bunch of stuff to make more room on it, and I deleted a whole bunch of cookies, cause I didn't know what they were, and had heard they were bad. Dumb huh...deleting something you dont know what it is. I have plenty of space on this computer, so I hadn't even checked for cookies. Glad to be informed now! Thanks! :)

[TWTCommish]

Originally posted by blinc
What on earth? I've never heard of that. Why would AOL maybe have that ability?

It's not likely, but the thing with AOL is that it's all "together" into one thing. AOL is almost like it's own mini-Internet. You log onto AOL with your username and such, which is connected to AOL's servers, which probably store all of your information inside.

Things are different with other ISPs.

If you use EarthLink to connect to the net, your email address could still be "ilovefrappydoo@hotmail.com" - simply using EarthLink does not let everyone know what you use a Hotmail.com address.

With AOL, however, if you can detect the user's screename, obviously adding "@aol.com" to the end will produce the address.

Not likely at all, but the point is that with anything other than AOL, there's just no way to tell. AOL encloses everything. Don't get me wrong: The odds are tiny, but I'd think such things would be just a tad more likely with AOL - more likely to be able to grab your email.

[jamesglewisf]

AOL has my name, address, phone number and credit card info because I gave it to them when I signed up, not because of cookies.

I have AOL software installed on my computer. Could they have hidden code that tells them the contents of my hard drive? Possible, but not probable. They would get their hiney's sued off. There would probably even be criminal convictions. Any company that you sign up with will have some information on you. The phone company has your name and address, but that doesn't mean they are ripping you off.

But AOL is no different than virus protection software or any other utility/software installed on your computer that accesses the Internet. They could do something wrong, but they would get slaughtered for it.

[jamesglewisf]

I took my car to get repaired at the dealership. I paid the approximately $85 on my credit card. On the next statement, there were two charges: one for $85 and the other for $1,800. It turned out that the cashier pocketed $1,800 someone paid in cash that day and charged it to my credit card. I got my money back, she got fired, and the dealership is pressing charges.

So, should I never use my credit card at a car dealership again? No. I just need to check my statement every month and be careful. No big deal.

Since time began there have been people who cheat and break the rules. It is no different today. Just be careful, not paranoid. Life is too short to always be worrying about some unknown possibility of something that could go wrong.

[Anat]

Jim - I totally agree with you!

People are too scared to use their credit card on the net. I keep telling them that if they use it over the phone to pay for a pizza delivery, it's exactly the same risk as using it on the internet.

People just feel more at ease with phones than with computers I guess...

[blinc]

hmmmm... some interesting points being brought up. I'm very leery of using a credit card over the internet, mainly because I'm scared of hackers. If I give the info over the phone, I'm not sending it over the internet. Guess it just spooks me to see my card number in print, hitting the submit or send button and hoping like heck that it isn't intercepted somehow or the site I sent it to doesn't get hacked into, stuff like that.

I didn't realize with AOL that you could just find someone's email address by figuring out their screen name. That's rather bothersome to me.. it seems that it opens you up to a lot of email abuse. I mean say if someone here didn't like me... all's they would have to do is type in "blinc@aol.com" (if I had AOL) and they could sign me up to a bunch of different sites to be spammed. I see a huge potential for abuse with that setup. Has anyone ever heard of things like that happening?

[TWTCommish]

Not necessarily blinc - what tells them you use AOL, or if you do, that your screenname is "blinc"?

I've got an old Yahoo! Mail address which uses the name "TWTCommish" - but I don't use it for my other email addresses. All I mean is that if you could detect the screenname, you have the email. I dunno if it's necessarily easy of reasonanbly possible though.

Hackers? If you see the little lock on the right-hand side of the status bar, the odds of someone intercepting your information are so small you shouldn't even bother to break a sweat over it.

[blinc]

I was going by what you said here TWT:

"With AOL, however, if you can detect the user's screename, obviously adding "@aol.com" to the end will produce the address".

What I was trying to say is IF a person did have someone who was trying to cause them trouble, and IF the person found out somehow that you had AOL, then by typing in blinc@aol.com as a mailing address and signing you/me up for things at various sites, that could lead to being spammed.

[TWTCommish]

Oh...yes, I see. I'm susceptible to it as well though - since my email address is public. The AOL thing isn't some big deal.

For example: if you told me you had AOL right now, I couldn't necessarily SPAM you. How do I know that your AOL Screen name necessarily matches your username here? It could be blinc123@aol.com, or IamBlinc@aol.com. :)

But yes, anyone with a public email address (most people actually) are susceptible to this. Not much of a way around it, other than using an email client (such as Microsoft Outlook 2000) that can filter your email for you.

[Anat]

I'm not too worried about spammers. Most serious mailing lists give you an easy opt-out (usually you email back with unsubscribe as the title or visit their site and fill out a form). So putting you on a list without your consent can be easily reversed and would therefore not be very effective.

More importantly, if you feel you're being spammed - either because you're getting unsolicited emails from an advertiser or you can't opt-out from a list you've subscribed to, you can usually track down the offending site or at least the host and complain. Most companies are very wary of being involved in spam and will immdiately stop it and apologize. Most hosts will actually stop the spammer's account and put him/her out of business.