Technology alert. I’m not Glenn Beck and I know the technologies that are behind the internet. Take may word for it, the
following information is important to you.

The Obama administration is proposing a change in the rules about federal websites and how these sites use “cookies.”

Cookies are little files that can contain information about you and things that you have done while visiting a web site. Cookies are normally kept on YOUR hard drive.

Up to now, the federal government has had restrictive rules about cookies, and the federal government cannot use cookies for complex data gathering purposes.

Barry is not happy about that.

washingtonpost.com

“Supporters of a change say social networking and similar services, which often take advantage of the tracking technologies, have transformed how people communicate over the Internet, and Obama’s aides say those services can make government more transparent and increase public involvement.

Some privacy groups say the proposal amounts to a “massive” and unexplained shift in government policy. In a statement Monday, American Civil Liberties Union spokesman Michael Macleod-Ball said the move could “allow the mass collection of personal information of every user of a federal government website.”“

The ACLU may become your friend, since they are completely against these proposals.

Now some people are going to say “well, it’s not a problem since you can control whether you let a website put a cookie on your hard drive.” That’s true, but the website can also deny you the ability to access the services of that website unless you accept the cookies.

So, the federal government could say “if you don’t take the cookies from us, then you won’t be able to use our website and all it’s features.”

Catch 22.

If you have been keeping track of the way the Obama administration has been slowly becoming more and more concerned about keeping track of what you do, think and say (ie: the recent “send us an email if you hear someone trashing health care reform”), you will understand that this is a step further in that goal.

Read the article and ask questions.