Google enables cookies in advance...

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Rodney Joffe <rjoffe () centergate com>
Date: January 8, 2006 11:44:20 PM EST
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Google enables cookies in advance...

For IP if you wish:

Hi Dave,

I'm not sure if this is something already well-known - or perhaps it  
is not worthy of note. Or perhaps I have something misconfigured?


I use Firefox 1.0.7 on my Mac G4. Over the last while I have noticed  
a large number of cookies from websites I know I've never been to. So  
I cleared all of my cookies, and spent a couple of days doing my  
normal browsing, but this time being very cognizant of where I am  
going and not doing any spurious surfing. Lo and behold, a number of  
cookies from reasonably well-known and "trustworthy" sites that I did  
*not* visit. I then cleared cookies again,  and reset preferences to  
ask for permission for every cookie request.

The culprit seems to be Google. When entering search terms, as soon  
as the results page from Google appears, it is followed by a request  
to accept a cookie from one of the websites near or at the top of the  
list of results. Even though I have not yet even had the option of  
going to that website, and irrespective of whether I actually end up  
in going there.

Is this well-known behavior? Is it acceptable? I can only imagine the  
damage that could be done should forensic examination of a system  
uncover cookies set from a "sensitive" website, which seem like  
pretty compelling evidence that the user knowingly visited that site.  
I have just Googled for the single word "sandstorm". What benefit is  
it provifing Google?

The Firefox popup over the Google results page is asking for a cookie  
to be set for www.djsandstorm.com, which is also the top of the  
search result. I've attached a tiff file.

Do others see this behavior?
----------------------------------------------
Rodney Joffe
CenterGate Research Group, LLC.
http://www.centergate.com
"Technology so advanced, even we don't understand it!"(R)




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