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[ NNSquad ] Congressmen blast "supercookies" as privacy menace


Congressmen blast "supercookies" as privacy menace

http://j.mp/pSkgAO  (ars technica)

    "In a Monday letter to the Federal Trade Commission, two prominent
     members of the House of Representatives raised alarm about the use of
     "supercookies" by popular websites such as msn.com and hulu.com.
     Citing an August Wall Street Journal article, they urged the FTC to
     investigate the growing use of supercookies as a potential "unfair and
     deceptive act or practice.""

 - - -

Cookies of course can fulfill many important, non-privacy invasive
functions.  The problem with "supercookies" is that they appear to
specifically be attempts to bypass users' explicit decisions not to
accept or maintain particular cookies.  Some observers might argue
that when people block cookies they frequently don't know what they're
really doing and how badly they might mess things up.  This certainly
can be true.  But in the general case, when it comes to cookies, "no"
really does have to mean no."

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren 
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org 
Founder:
 - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org 
 - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
 - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com 
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com 
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein 
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com