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No policing, please
AS THE saying goes, "There's no such thing as a free lunch!" It may seem as if the Internet is full of price-less goodies — hundreds of websites providing free information and entertainment.
But knowingly or otherwise, every time you visit a website, you are paying a small price... your privacy. Blame it on the tiny text files, called cookies that are saved on the hard drive by your browser after every surfing operation.
Here's how a cookie works. You open a web browser — Internet Explorer, Netscape or whatever — and enter the address of the website you want to visit. If you find something interesting, you send a request for more information. Within seconds, the computer at the website (known as the server) sends you what you requested — a page of text or pictures, a video clipping or a piece of music.
As you enjoy this, unknown to you, a tiny data file has also been received by your computer and placed somewhere on your hard disk. It contains details about your identity (i.e. your Internet Protocol (IP) address), the date and time when you visited that website and what you downloaded.
The next time you go to that website, the server there retrieves the cookie sitting on your PC to check on the details. In effect, the web server says: ``Hey, this is the same guy who came here last week. At that time he looked up some air timings. Now he or she is asking about airline fares. Maybe we should send some unsolicited information to convert this surfer into a paying customer!"
This may sound innocuous — but over a few months of surfing, you will be surprised at what a detailed personal profile websites can build up about you. All web companies maintain that they are white-as-driven-snow angels, when it comes to using such information, that they need it to serve you better, help you to surf faster and efficiently.
But users worldwide are becoming anxious about the way cookies can invade their privacy. And many service companies are ready to pay money to know your likes and dislikes — what are your reading tastes, your preference in movies, whether you own a car or a scooter, whether you own a credit card etc.
So, should you disable all cookies? Both Internet Explorer (IE) and Netscape allow you to say no to cookies. If you are using IE, you have to go into ``Internet Options'' and click on the ``Security tab". You can then select "Custom level'' under ``Internet'' which gives you the option to either accept or disable cookies. You also have the option to set limits to number of cookies per session.
If you are using Netscape, the cookie crumbling option is available under ``Edit/Preferences'' in the main menu. Select "Advanced'' which then allows you to accept or disable cookies; to accept only cookies that can be sent back to the server; or to be warned when a cookie is received.
Is it worth disabling all cookies? Not really. Websites quite cleverly have made cookies a necessary part of many services. If you disable cookies completely, you will find that half the features on the web page, especially the graphics, cannot be downloaded.
But there is a way to have that cookie — and eat it too! And that is by using one of many freely downloadable ``cookie controllers'' that are available from Websites like PCWorld.com (ask for ``cookie managers'' in the downloads section). You will find programmes like ``WebWasher", ``CookieCrusher'' and "CompleteCleanup".
These programmes allow you to accept cookies during a surfing session and then to erase them from the hard disk immediately. When that cookie-seeking file comes sneaking in next time, it'll find the larder is empty!
A VISHNU
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