[WEB4LIB] Re: [Fwd: Google, libraries, and privacy]

[Joseph Murphy]

On Dec 19, 2004, at 3:13 PM, Thomas Dowling wrote:
>>> ...Google has used a cookie with a unique ID in it that
>>> expires in 2038...
>
> Not on my machine they don't.

Thanks, Tom. You've helped me to finally figure out how to explain, in 
good LIS terms, why cookies just don't concern me as a privacy issue.

A cookie is a record which is _under the control of the user_. It is up 
to the end user whether that data is stored or not. It's not accurate 
to compare cookies to a library maintaining a borrowing history on a 
patron; the accurate comparison would be to a service like Amazon's 
recommender or Alexandria Digital Literature's collaborative filter (or 
your physical bookshelf). It's your file, on your hard drive, and it's 
there as long as you let it be.

Sure, cookies are written in the background, without the end user's 
knowledge. Browsing with cookies turned off is no longer a feasible 
solution, IMO. Fortunately, the major current browsers (IE, Netscape, 
Mozilla/Firefox, Safari) have built in reasonably good cookie managers. 
If you've got too many cookies to manage, Firefox and Safari have 
lovely "Reset" options which clears cache, cookies, history, and saved 
form data in one swell foop.

Which brings us back to another truth of libraries in the Internet age: 
if you don't know who's teaching this kind of thing to your users, it's 
probably your job. I know it's mine.

(I feel a sketch coming on, in a Voice Most Dickensian...

"But some don't know how to clear their cookies, and some would rather 
die!"
"If they would rather die, they should do it, and reduce the surplus 
population... I mean, wasted bandwidth.")

Joe Murphy
Librarian and Technology Consultant
Library and Information Services
Kenyon College
murphyjm at kenyon.edu
740/427-5120