The commercial
imperative to comply with best data privacy practice was recently
illustrated in the settlement of the DoubleClick case. DoubleClick
had to pay $1.8 million to settle actions arising from its improper use of
information collected using "cookies". This article focuses on cookies, explaining what they are and what steps your
organisation needs to take to use them safely.
Cookies: giving web sites memory
The Internet uses Internet Protocol (IP) numbers to route information.
Every computer that is logged on to the Internet will have an IP number
(effectively the computer’s "street address"). However, a user accessing a
web site will usually be anonymous to the web site owner unless he
provides his name or email address (e.g. as part of a purchase or by
subscribing). Collecting information about visitors is made even more
difficult by the fact that most visitors do not have a
