Keeping Track of Web Activity

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Internet cookies aren't going to tell the government about every Web site you've visited. Some consumer news articles might give you the impression that Internet cookies broadcast everything you do on your computer to every Web site administrator connected to the Internet. The truth isn't quite so frightening.

Internet cookies are small text files that Web sites store to your computer's hard drive -- they aren't computer programs. An Internet cookie gives a unique identifier relevant to a particular Web site to each computer that visits the site. The identifier lets Web sites tailor the browsing experience to your preferences. If you visit an international Web site that's available in many languages, you'd want to read it in a language you know. Using an Internet cookie, the Web site can remember this information. The next time you visit that site, you'll go straight to the appropriate version because the cookie on your hard drive told the site which language you prefer.

If you fill out an online form on a Web site, the site may store that information in the cookie on your hard drive. The personal information can't get into the cookie file unless you choose to provide that information. There's no way for the cookie to search your computer for identification information. In other words, if you're worried about personal information hitting the Web, just don't share it.

A small number of major Web companies provide most of the cookies on the Internet. These companies use the same format for all their cookies, so it's possible for these companies to see when a computer visits different Web sites that use their cookies. For example, Web advertising giant DoubleClick provides cookies for thousands of Web sites. DoubleClick can see if a computer visits different Web sites using their cookies, but it can't see if the computer visits a site that either uses a different Internet cookie or doesn't use cookies at all.

Currently, the U.S. Congress is considering an act that would require Internet Service Providers(ISPs) to retain personal data for all its subscribers that the government could then use in investigations. The act is called H.R. 837: Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth (SAFETY) of 2007. If this becomes law, ISPs will have to save personal information like names, postal addresses and Internet Protocol(IP)addresses for all its subscribers. While the government wouldn't be able to track a user's browsing in real time, it could request records from an ISP showing all Internet activities on a particular user's account. People who use public computer accounts (like a computer lab in a public library) would be harder to track.

Some Internet privacy advocates don't like the idea of a governmental agency keeping information files about Web site visitors. Whether the government intends to use that information for tracking purposes is beside the point. The advocates argue that the government shouldn't keep tabs on people using cookies at all.

It may come as a surprise to conspiracy theorists, but the government more or less agrees with this perspective. In 2003, the White House's Office of Management and Budget issued a memo regarding the federal government's Internet privacy policies. The memo said that all federal government sites must post their privacy policies on an easily accessible Web page. The memo also forbids the use of persistent cookies in most cases. These are Internet cookies that remain on your hard drive even after you close your browser program. […]

Despite this memo, several people have reported the use of persistent cookies on governmental Web sites. For example, the New York Times reported in 2005 that the National Security Agency (NSA) used persistent Internet cookies on its Web site that wouldn't expire until 2035. An NSA spokesperson said that the inclusion of the persistent cookies was an accident caused by a software upgrade [source: New York Times].

Many of the exposé reports about government Web sites and persistent cookies seem to be due to such accidents. Some Web page development software includes persistent cookies as a standard option. If the Web administrator doesn't know about the option, he or she might create a Web page that includes persistent cookies without being aware of it. Considering the amount of work necessary to track someone using cookies, it's likely that most of these incidents are, in fact, accidents.

· Comment on the intention of the U.S. Congress to consider an act that would require Internet Service Providers(ISPs) to retain personal data for all its subscribers that the government could then use in investigations? Does this violate an individual’s privacy rights? Do you find it an effective move?

· Comment on the following: An NSA spokesperson said that the inclusion of the persistent cookies was an accident caused by a software upgrade.