IP: cookies and shockwave

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 05:26:23 -0800 (PST)
>From: Allan Hunt-Badiner <ahbadiner@igc.apc.org>
>To: farber@cis.upenn.edu
>Subject: cookies and shockwave
>
>Don,
>
>i suspect many of your readers use the web with cookies disabled on
>their browsers... i do.
>
>until now, cookies have been optional (although that is not widely
>known) and the norm has been for sites that use them not to block
>access to users who don't.
>
>Macromedia has just made dowloading it's Shockwave plug-in a
>cookie-only function.  people concerned with their privacy will now be
>unable to enjoy shockwave content which is ubiquitous on the web.
>
>given the abuse of cookies by ad agencies, the trend toward
>personalization, and the invasion of privacy that this technology
>represents, it behooves people who care about these issues to speak up.
>the practical reality is that if Macromedia gets away with cookies-only
>access, then others will follow suit, and when the numbers of people who
>can't tolerate the "inconvenience" and "loss of service" grows to a
>critical point, the very ability to disable might not even be offered.
>
>i hope that enough people will contact <customerservice@macromedia.com>
>so that they rethink their policy.
>
>thanks,
>
>--Allan