Now I’m Worried About This Y2K Bug Thing!

Does this make you think it is still 1999? If not try reading this story that spreads the fear of cookies and spying. The author must not have done any research at all into what a cookie file is or what it is used for, as the lead paragraph states “The National Security Agency’s Internet site has been placing files on visitors’ computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal rules banning most of them.”

Fear! Spying! The Government is out to get us all! Adding fuel is the quick line “privacy advocates complain that cookies can also track Web surfing, even if no personal information is actually collected.” Yeah. Do these same people wear foil helmets to keep the government from listening to their thoughts?

Yes, this is a violation of the NSA Privacy policy, which did not state that they uses persistent cookies, and it is also a violation of the government guideline that says that they have to use session based cookies unless there is a compelling need for a longer duration.

Daniel Brandt, a privacy activist who discovered the NSA cookies, said mistakes happen, “but in any case, it’s illegal. The (guideline) doesn’t say anything about doing it accidentally.”

But, is this a conspiracy to invade our computers and spy on us? It must be according to these fear-mongers. The privacy advocate who blew this out of proportion has a good understanding of how things work, as he has turned this mistake into something far bigger – and somehow illegal. I know it is so because I read it on the Internet – in a few places. Here’s proof: NSA Used Illegal Cookies on Website

Well, at least we can be assured that the last five years of education and advancement of what a cookie really is will keep this from spreading. Nah!

What Price Freedom?
There are times when technology – and the damage it can potentially inflict – angers and frightens me.

It’s no secret that governments around the world routinely use all sorts of technological methods in conducting nefarious acts against enemy countries. That I may not agree with, but I can’t complain about it. But I can complain about our country using technology to spy on its own residents.

And now, the Associated Press is reporting that the National Security Agency has been placing cookies in NSA Web site visitors’ computers that track which other Web sites they visit. And these cookies are of the persistent variety, not set to expire until 2035. Any visitor – average American citizen, Army general or enemy combatant – got the cookie, as the site made no distinctions as to who you were or from where you were logging on.

Set the WABAC machine Mr. Peabody, we’re going back to the stone age of the Internet.