Charge for Cookies -- new feature request for MS

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From: William W. Plummer (William.PlummerXNOSPAMX_at_alum.mit.edu)
Date: 02/16/04 

Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 22:54:15 GMT

I am troubled by the number of sites that require cookies to be enabled in
order for me to use the facilities they offer, EVEN IF I PAY for their
service. Why should I let them write on my hard disk to get the info I am
paying for?

It seems to me I should be able to charge for each cookie, say $1.00 per
month. They are receiving valuable marking data by tracking my useable and
if they had to get that data from some market research out fit, they would
have to pay handsomely.

The solution is for Microsoft to make a new facility for Internet Explorer
that lets each of us create and administer financial accounts for various
purposes, specifically charging for cookie storage and use. When a remote
site requests me to accept a cookie, I be able to say "Yes. For free", or
"Yes, give my PayPal account $1 for the next month." , "No. Go away".

I believe that the ability to implant cookies on my machine is one of the
two major steps to virus propagation: storing the code. All that is
required beyond that is some hole in the OS or browser that will execute a
cookie.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Spyware and Adware affect every internet user
    ... I do regular scans for viruses, spyware etc. and have never found anything ... Supposedly a cookie with the domain attribute set, ... A common tracking technique used ... Of course this is totally stupid if you configure your webbrowser to not ...
    (comp.security.misc)
  • Cookies and Tracking
    ... Should the overide automatic cookie handling be checked ... and 3rd party... ... How do these tracking things get on one's computer? ...
    (microsoft.public.security)
  • Re: Mozilla Firefox Spyware????
    ... The browser just holds them, in case you should visit the site again. ... I don't really see why Spybot should consider a tracking cookie a 'red alert'. ... Firefox is the same in this respect as any other browser. ... If a site give you a cookie, the site already has the information that is going to be stored in the cookie, so you don't give away information by accepting a cookie. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Charge for Cookies -- new feature request for MS
    ... > It seems to me I should be able to charge for each cookie, ... They are receiving valuable marking data by tracking my ... cookie manager. ... I use PopUp Cop to eliminate popups, flash movies, and such ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.general)
  • Accessing Cookies From Entire Site?
    ... an order and then a cart to checkout. ... Well, the cookie is tracking ...
    (alt.html)