[Tutor] cookies

[Erik Price]

On Friday, March 22, 2002, at 05:46  AM, john public wrote:

> Does anyone know if someone has written a program in Python that allows 
> manipulation of cookies for internet privacy? I have always been 
> concerned about internet privacy if some one has written such a program 
> maybe I can do something about my privacy concerns and learn something 
> about Python code at the same time. I am running windows 98. Will 
> switching to Linux make cookie and internet cache management easier?

What is it about privacy that you want addressed?  As far as privacy 
goes, cookies are actually pretty non-invasive -- there's a whole slew 
of rules about how they can and can't be used (which is more than can be 
said for a majority of the spyware being installed on people's boxes 
from P2P freeware).  In fact, cookies were designed all along to be 
helpful to the user, rather than to track their browsing habits.  But 
privacy issues are always important.  I think a Python script to manage 
cookies would be pretty neat.

You will have an inherently more private system if you switch from 
Windows to Linux, although this is a more accurate statement for people 
running Windows e[X]tra [P]roprietary.  Linux distributions generally 
don't try to contact the company that markets them with information 
about your system at random (though who knows?), and you have access to 
every tiny piece of your system, even the source code if you should want 
it.  I don't know how Win systems allow you to manage your cookies (I 
imagine it's through browser preferences and perhaps the filesystem), so 
I couldn't say whether or not it is easier in Linux.  But once you 
understand the structure of a Linux system, there's really nowhere you 
can't go.


Erik