Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: OT: restricting/disabling cookies(was: Re: OT: Cookies)

Author: Shep

Date: 08:11:30 03/27/00

Go up one level in this thread


On March 24, 2000 at 19:53:59, Tina Long wrote:


>Woof Woof (the guard-dog beeper) "TeenXXX.com is trying to place a Cookie on
>your computer.  You have never visited this site."
>
>upset & scared me, especially after several of them barked at me.
>
>If CCC or GambitSoft etc have cookies that tell them I'm a customer etc, that's
>fine by me.  It's anonymous stuff I fear, if they can plant cookies just because
>I'm attached to the internet, then what else can they plant?

Nothing. When you're visiting a site, that site can order your browser to set a
cookie. That's all. There are security measures taken by the browser that
nothing else than a simple value can be stored. It's like storing a variable to
a text file.
If you get a cookie from a site you're sure you've never been to, it's typically
because you had an ad on a page which came from that site.
E.g. if you go to foo.com which has an ad on its page which comes from bar.com
(like IMG SRC="http://bar.com/ad_93.gif"), then bar.com can set a cookie as
well.

Note that you can configure both Netscape and Explorer to warn you when a site
tries to set a cookie and prompt you if you want the cookie set or not.
Alternatively, you can disable cookies completely.

Netscape: Go to Edit/Preferences/Advanced, check "Warn me before accepting a
cookie" and/or "Disable cookies".
Explorer: Go to Extras/Internet options/Security/Customize/Cookies (I hope the
path is correct, I only have the German Explorer here)

---
Shep





This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.