Freeware Helps Keep Your Cruising Confidential

[Lou Zirko <lzirko@aye.net>]

I thought I would pass this along.  Just downloaded it and am looking at
it.  Interesting application for Win 95/NT users.  The download page
starts at http://www.luckman.com/anoncookie/anoncookie.html

Lou Zirko

>Freeware Helps Keep Your Cruising Confidential 
>
>
>
>by Brian McWilliams, PC World NewsRadio 
>
>June 24, 1997
>Concerns about Internet privacy are running hot since the recent privacy
>hearings sponsored by the Federal Trade Commission. New laws as well as
>technology standards may soon come to the assistance of Net users. In the
>meantime, a California company is releasing a freeware tool to help users
>gain some control over their online privacy.
>
>Luckman Interactive today posted a utility for Windows 95 and NT called
>Luckman's Anonymous Cookie for Internet Privacy.
>
>According to chief technology officer Marco Papa, the beta software works
>with browsers from Microsoft and Netscape. It installs in your Win 95
>system tray and enables you to switch in and out of "anonymizer mode,"
>that is, controlling whether or not a Web site can write to and read your
>browser's cookie file. This file is used by some sites to personalize
>their content and in some cases to track your activities online.
>
>"We save all your cookie files and replace them with either an empty
>folder or a file that can't be overwritten," explains Papa. "When you turn
>cookies back on, you actually replace whatever may have changed with your
>original cookie files."
>
>Luckman's Anonymous Cookie program is actually technology that was
>developed for the company's WebSweep utility, which is scheduled for
>commercial release later this summer. But Papa says the firm decided to
>pull the cookie piece out now to give users some much-needed control over
>online privacy.
>
>Dierdre Mulligan of the Center for Democracy and Technology says cookie
>files are at the heart of many privacy problems on the Net. Her group is
>especially critical of companies like DoubleClick, which she says violates
>the spirit of the cookie concept by passing user information on to third
>parties. She welcomes tools like Luckman's, but she notes that add-ons
>don't help protect the millions of less experienced Net users.
>
>"If you really want people to have an easy-to-use way to protect
>information or to control what their kids are going to see on the Net,
>build it into the browser. Everybody has one, and they don't have to go
>buy an extra program or figure out how to install it," Mulligan said.
>
>Brent Luckman, chairman of Luckman Interactive, said that's a great idea,
>but he doesn't see much impetus for browser makers to give up access to
>valuable marketing information.
>
>If you're a privacy guerrilla, you can grab your free copy of the
>Anonymous Cookie program from Luckman's Web site.
>
>
Lou Zirko

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