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THE COOKIE CONUNDRUM
The General Accounting Office took the Clinton administration to task in late October for failing to censure 13 government agencies caught tracking the Internet habits of visitors to their Web sites.

At issue was the use of "cookie" files. A cookie is a small data file that stores user information. When you visit a site that uses cookies, commands embedded in the Web page contact the server that hosts the site, which then downloads a cookie to your hard drive.

In the case of the government Web sites, the use of cookies directly conflicted with the sites’ stated privacy policies, as well as with a White House directive prohibiting cookies on federal sites.

The government sites were not alone in their use of this technology, though. The majority of sites on the World Wide Web, including ADA.org, use cookies to add functionality to their Web pages.

Web sites use cookies for a variety of reasons. Sites that require registration use cookies to store user name and password information. Personalized Web sites use cookies to store users’ preferences for content such as news, stock quotes, local weather forecasts and the like. Retail sites use cookies to collect items in electronic "shopping carts" for purchasing online.

Cookies also can be used for other, less agreeable purposes. Some sites place several cookies on a user’s hard drive, some of which send information back to advertisers about the other sites the user visits. Web advertising companies often keep track of each user’s cookies in a database, cross-referencing them to develop a profile of the user’s interests and spending habits for targeted marketing campaigns.

Each of us must decide how to deal with cookies, weighing the benefits of convenience against the possible loss of privacy. If you decide you’d like to have more control over the cookies placed on your computer, you do have a few options.

If you don’t want any Web site information stored on your computer, you can set your Web browser to reject all cookies. Both Netscape Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer allow the user to turn off cookie access. However, any settings you have established at Web sites that offer personalization will be lost. Additionally, sites that require registration either will request your user name and password each time you access a restricted resource or may be entirely inaccessible.

If you would like to store some site information but not accept cookies from every site that uses them, you can set your Web browser to ask whether you want to accept or decline each cookie offered. Both Communicator and Internet Explorer offer this option. You may find this gets old quickly, though, since many sites will access a cookie every time you follow a link to a new page, bringing up a dialog box requiring your approval.

As a final option, there are software programs available that can automate how cookies are handled, allowing you to give full access to some cookies and to deny others. For third-party cookie control software, try a search on your favorite search engine using the keywords "cookie management" to find information about the options that are available.

Joe Hoyle, electronic media editor, ADA Publishing, a division of ADA Business Enterprises Inc., "hoylej{at}ada.org".

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