NSA uses computer cookies to track
visitors
CNet News
NSA catches heat over cookies
December 29, 2005
Officials of the National Security Agency this week acknowledged that the
agency had been placing persistent cookies on the computers of people who
visited its Web site and that it has since ceased the practice.
The NSA said Wednesday that the use of the cookies was accidental, the
result of a recent software upgrade, according to the Associated Press. "After
being tipped to the issue, we immediately disabled the cookies," an agency
spokesman said.
The spy organization also uses other, more short-lived cookies--small files
that keep a record of Web sites people visit--that disappear when a person
closes the browser window being used and that are permissible under federal
regulations, the AP story said. Those that are not deleted immediately are
banned for the most part; the NSA's persistent cookies were not set to expire
until 2035.
Earlier this month, the NSA became embroiled in a separate controversy when
The New York Times reported that the agency had been engaged in widespread
eavesdropping on U.S. citizens.
Posted by Jonathan Skillings
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