Privacy bill would control 'cookies'
Privacy from Companies
5/2/2000; 6:09:50 PM Feb 10, 2000: Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., says he wants to control networks' use of "cookies," or digital ID tags, dropped on Net users' hard drives. OK, great, we've got people who want to do something about the privacy issues on the Internet. Is Sen. Robert Torricelli, or any of his staff, aware that Cookies aren't the problem, tracking people is. Banning cookies isn't any good, Doubleclick can still track you by IP address, they just won't be able to trick your machine into doing the hard work for them.

Things need to change, but they need to change at a high level; ban cookies, and tommorow they'll use some other tracking technique. Want to accomplish something (skipping the debate as to the goodness or badness of the something)? Ban a behavior, like user tracking. Don't go after the hammer, go after the idiot beating heads in with it. Tools aren't the problem; uses are.