Key_Master - 3:06 am on Aug 30, 2002 (gmt 0)

I agree. A lot of people barely understand what a cookie is, let alone what it is used for. It makes me pretty upset, when people, including IT professionals, talk about technologies they are not sure about.

Hmmm, let me explain because you don't seem to understand how powerful a tracking cookie can be. For example, I'm on a dial-up ISP. My IP will change each time I connect online. This doesn't matter to a site that uses cookies for tracking purposes. Even if my IP changes, the tracking ID stored on the cookie on my computer will still remain the same. That tracking cookie can be logged (with other info) on the receiving server and every query I made to that server can be retrieved at any time using the tracking ID set on the cookie. Toolbar data could be used in essentially the same way. Everyman's point was that this information could be used against you if Google was ever compelled to legally release this information.

Sure, being an "IT professional" I can turn cookies off but most Web surfers aren't IT professionals and do not know what a cookie is- much less how to turn them off.