posted on December 30, 2005 03:46:47 PM new
By Anick Jesdanun
Associated Press
Published December 30, 2005
NEW YORK -- Unbeknown to the Bush administration, an outside contractor has been using Internet tracking technologies that may be prohibited to analyze usage and traffic patterns at the White House's Web site, an official said Thursday.
David Almacy, the White House's Internet director, promised an investigation into whether the practice is consistent with a 2003 policy from the White House's Office of Management and Budget banning the use of most such technologies at government sites.
On Wednesday, the National Security Agency acknowledged it had erred in using banned "cookies" at its Web site.
The White House's Web site uses what is known as a Web bug to anonymously keep track of who is visiting and when. In this case, the bug is pulled from a server maintained by the contractor, WebTrends Inc., and lets the traffic analytics company know that another person has visited a specific page on the site.
Web bugs are not prohibited. But when the bugs are linked to a data file known as a "cookie" so that a site can tell if the same person has visited again, a federal agency using them must demonstrate a "compelling need," get a senior official's sign-off and disclose such usage, said Peter Swire, a Clinton administration official who helped draft the original rules.
The White House's privacy policy does not specifically mention cookies or Web bugs, and Almacy said the sign-off never was sought because it was not believed to be required. He said his team was first informed of the cookie use by the AP.
Almacy said no personal information was collected, and the cookie was used only to determine whether a visitor was a new or returning user.
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
---------------------------------- The duty of a patriot in this time and place is to ask questions, to demand answers, to understand where our nation is headed and why. If the answers you get do not suit you, or if they frighten you, or if they anger you, it is your duty as a patriot to dissent. Freedom does not begin with blind acceptance and with a flag. Freedom begins when you say 'No.'
posted on December 30, 2005 04:06:36 PM new"Unbeknown to the Bush administration"
Just like a lot of things with Bush, he plays ignorance to them all.
Unbeknown to Bush......
...somebody in the White House leaked the identity of Valerie Plame.
...the US troops tortured the Iraqi prisoners.
....Iraq did not have WMD
.....terrorists were planning to fly planes into American buildings
.....New Orleans was flooding
Tell me is there something that Bush does know
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
---------------------------------- The duty of a patriot in this time and place is to ask questions, to demand answers, to understand where our nation is headed and why. If the answers you get do not suit you, or if they frighten you, or if they anger you, it is your duty as a patriot to dissent. Freedom does not begin with blind acceptance and with a flag. Freedom begins when you say 'No.'
posted on December 30, 2005 07:08:20 PM new
That's right you only have to worry about the FBI coming after churches with a political agenda.
But then again you might not have to worry about that since the Church of Here and There is not a real Church anyway.
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
---------------------------------- The duty of a patriot in this time and place is to ask questions, to demand answers, to understand where our nation is headed and why. If the answers you get do not suit you, or if they frighten you, or if they anger you, it is your duty as a patriot to dissent. Freedom does not begin with blind acceptance and with a flag. Freedom begins when you say 'No.'
posted on December 30, 2005 07:17:00 PM new
"But when the bugs are linked to a data file known as a "cookie" so that a site can tell if the same person has visited again"
My response is----
Well dump your d$%^ cookies if "u" is worried!
Like I see it if I have not done anything then I won't sweat it. My life is an open book and boring at that.
