Cookies?

[jennifer_reiswig at ucsdlibrary.ucsd.edu]

     We allow cookies, and our users are not "warned" about them.  We have 
     done this as a practical measure, not because I think they are a good 
     idea, but because we have two very important sites which REQUIRE their 
     use.  I have e-mailed the site creators of both and suggested they use 
     a different approach, but so long as they continue to use cookies, we 
     must continue to allow them.
     
     Both are sites which require individual registration the first time 
     the site is used from a particular IP address, presumably to gather 
     data on what that user does at the site.  That registration is stored 
     as a cookie.  One is an academic publisher of electronic journals, and 
     the other is a major Web research tool for clinical medicine.  I have 
     registered all 16 of our workstations with the PC's ID number as the 
     user's "name".  The site then gets its information about use of the 
     site, and our users never have to deal with granting cookies.
     
     I don't even want to think about what else is in our cookie files... 
     
     Jenny Reiswig
     Biomedical Library
     University of California, San Diego
     jreiswig at ucsd.edu
     


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Cookies?   
Author:  <darganm at iren.net > at {ucsdhub}
Date:    6/5/98 5:49 PM


We're running Netscape Standalone 4.05 on Win95 workstations that are 
under severe policy restrictions and Fortres 101.  I've disabled cookies 
but am getting pressure from patrons who desire them.  I'm leery of 
allowing them on public workstations.  
     
Am I being to fussy?  What would be the practical significance of 
enabling cookies which are sent back to the server?
     
Thanks
     
mike dargan