Cookies and Privacy

FoxTrot   1998 Bill Amend. Reprinted with permission of Universal Press 

Syndicate. All rights reserved.

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Servlets

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Some Problems with Cookies

The problem is privacy, not security

Servers can remember your previous actions 

If you give out personal information, servers can link that 

information to your previous actions

Servers can share cookie information through use of a 

cooperating third party like doubleclick.net

Poorly designed sites store sensitive information like 

credit card numbers directly in cookie

Morals for servlet authors

If cookies are not critical to your task, avoid servlets that 

totally fail when cookies are disabled

Don t put sensitive info in cookies

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Servlets

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