MSNBC and cookies

[Timothy C. May]

At 4:25 AM 7/19/96, Joel McNamara wrote:
>In attempting to check out different Net media coverage of TWA 800, it
>appears the msnbc.com site won't let you in without a cookie.  Repeated
>cookie cancels with Navigator 3.0 drop you into an indigestive loop of the
>server continuing to try to force feed you cookies.  When you finally click
>OK, you get in.
>
>Am I spacing, or is this the first site anyone's stumbled on that requires a
>cookie for access?  I've never been shut out of a site for canceling a
>cookie.  The first cookie request does have a user ID field.  If the server
>(or client) isn't misbehaving, this seems like a wee bit of a privacy issue.
>
>I tried accessing the page (http://www.msnbc.com) on 7/18/96 around 9:15 PM
>PDT.  Anyone care to confirm this.

Microsoft and GE, the parent corporation of NBC, are participants in the
FBI's "Web Awareness Program." Like the FBI's "Library Awareness Program,"
which tracked which books were being checked out by which patrons, the Web
Awareness Program tracks user interests at Web sites.

The WAP has already allowed the FBI and other intelligence agencies to
check up on several people who appeared to have an unusual interest in the
TWA 800 case.

(Don't spend too much time in certain sites, friends.)

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
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