Comments on: Congress' hands caught in the cookie jar

First the NSA, then the Pentagon, and now Congress fesses up to undisclosed Web tracking.
Infographic: Caught with hands in the cookie jar

[Cardiakke]

Nothing better to do?

Don't you have anything better to do in life?

Sad to see people wasting their lives pursuing such trivial matters!

Get a life.

[neurotap]

I don't see what the big deal is...

I am a freelance web developer and have designed, created and maintained many many web pages. The fact that cookies are used in at least 99.9% of ALL web pages is a fact and reality.

Most web pages use these cookies not to "track" you but to save your settings and logon information to allow your computer to more quickly load their web page. this is just a hype or scare that is going around and will die with the next big scare.

This web site uses cookies. All web designers making large-scale webpages will design them using cookies. BWI's website uses cookies, Google uses cookies, CNN uses cookies. Why so hard on the government? I bet these senators did not even know that these pages that more than likely they did not design or manage themselves, were designed using cookies. So don't get all high and mighty or come down hard on these people. They do their jobs and thats enough, they shouldn't have to worry wether or not their webpage has a cookie or two on it.

The fact that some malicious websites use cookies to track your information is not a big issue, and has been going on for at least 15 years. If you don't go to www.questionablewebsite.com then you will not have to worry about getting bad cookies on your computer.

I can't wait until I hear people complaining and sueing places like Ebay and Paypal for their use of cookies. "Oh, their stealing our information about where we live and our banks and stuff!", duh.

[gerhard_schroeder]

ALERT!!! CNET USEZ KOOKIEZ TOO!!! ALERT!!!

Dial 9-11!!!!!!

GWARRRRRRRRRRRRRRG!!!!!!!!!!!!

C|NET IS USING KOOKIEZ ON US!!!!!

[mmichaels]

I caught the government AGAIN!

Check out this link. Some of their latest spying techniques.

http://www.olg.cc/Rev/FBI/FBI.htm

[Stating]

Bigger Issue Is IP Loging

The Cookies Controversy is a red herring for more serious visitor tracking. When visiting a government site I always assume that I am being fully tracked and logged. To maintain some sense of privacy, which is my Constitutional right as a citizen, I use anonymous proxy servers. Here is one such server that you may want to consider, and it is free. Note that the free version does not allow "posting" to visited sites. http://www.the-cloak.com/anonymous-surfing-home.html

If you need posting capability, and want a more robust cloaking technology, you can use a product such as Anonymizer.
http://www.anonymizer.com/consumer/products/anonymous_surfing/

[n3td3v]

Proxies won't help ya not be logged

And 99.9% of open proxy servers have logs too. Infact folks purposely setup public proxy servers for logging people. If the powers that be wanted your IP, they'd go ask the admin at the proxy server for your info. Only way to stop the agencies from tracking you is breaking into computers and setting them up as proxies. Otherwise, cut out the added time wasting, and just get access to some already setup corporate proxies, for added eliteness.

[cristianodiaz]

Notice all the negative comments

I cannot believe they are continuing to push this pathetic excuse for journalism, even promoting it again on the weekend. My opinion of c|net has dropped substantially. What agenda do they have here? It obviously is not an agenda of competent journalism, as this story is a joke.

[n3td3v]

Media need hype to keep people reading

If you read the archive, you can see the agenda they have. To push out stories, and, to create a false sense of whats going on. They've been doing it for a long time. They craft their articles and rent a- quotes to infulence and shape a situation, which is at an angle where they can write more and more stories, by making something more hyped than it is

[coldfury.us]

Why even mention ColdFusion.

There isn't a web technology out there that can't set a cookie, from Java to JavaScript. I've just clicked "Post a comment" on this article and C|Net knows who I am? Ever heard of the statelessness of the web? Well, cookies are just about the last line of defense in a stateless www.

[Pluqueric]

Oooh! You scared me for a moment

Please find mewhere else to play, little boy.