Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The first of these helps identify your computer to the Web
site, while the second and third indicate something about the his
tory of your computer usage. None of this information directly
reveals your personal identity—only the IP address of your com
puter. Outsiders cannot determine who you are by using just
these pieces of information. Comforting as that may be, under
stand that the addition of personal information to the records
need not be a major step. For example, many commercial sites ask
you to register. You cannot order a book or an airline ticket with
out giving your name, address, and creditcard information. Of
course, once a company has this information, the technology is
available to connect it with other information it already has—per
haps from cookies.
With this in mind, users of the Web are well advised to check
the privacy policy of commercial sites before supplying personal in
formation.
How will a company use the information you supply?
Will the company share this information with others?
Can you limit access of others to this information?
What protections are in place to keep this information
secure?
As a separate matter, note that cookies typically are stored in
files in your computer account. Thus, if you have a computer ac
count at school or work, then the computer system there likely has
a record of cookies from the sites you have visited. At many schools
and companies, system administrators have the technical ability to
view those files. Similarly, if you use an Internet service provider for
Web access at home, it might be possible for managers of that ISP
to read your cookies file. Should administrators or managers look
at a file of cookies, they would know something about the Web sites
you have visited recently.
Because viewing of cookies and Web logs is technically possible,
you should review the privacy policy of any institution, company,
or ISP whose computers you use. A privacy policy may explicitly
forbid access to this information, or such access may be allowed
only in certain circumstances. On the other hand, managers or your
school's IT people may be allowed to view such information at will.
