On Cookies
I’m not paranoid but I do have my Firefox web browser set such that it asks me every time a website wants to set a cookie. Initially this was a huge pain, but in today’s connected world I think it’s my right to not be tracked by anyone and everyone. Some sites (such as Google, my online banking, etc) I allow to set whatever cookies they want. I either trust them or require functionality that continues between browser sessions. Other sites (such as IMDB or my online photo developer) I allow cookies to be set for the session only, meaning that they can set whatever cookies they like but those cookies will disappear as soon as I shutdown my browser. The rest of the cookies I receive, I either allow for the session or I block entirely.
What bugs me the most about cookies is the fact that some sites insist on setting a cookie for every file that’s sent. So for image heavy sites that do this, they are setting the same cookies over and over for each image. And this happens for every page. Why would they set their server or application up to do that? What could possible be achieved? I thought perhaps it was a web thing in general but on a recent application I built with Apache and Tomcat, I set 3 cookies at the start of the session and that’s it.
So I now have a rule; every general website gets to set 5 cookies and then they are added to my deny list. If the site doesn’t function without cookies (which a regular, non-login type site should), then they no longer get my business, so to speak. Oh, and those 2o7.net cookies that everyone seems to use? Those are blocked forever more.
Thu, 03 Nov 2005 21:07 Posted in Technology
