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Cookies first appeared in Netscape on Oct 13, 1994 [1]. In 1994 the 'web' was a very different place and the current environment of web tracking and invasive a
by pwg 4y ago
Cookies first appeared in Netscape on Oct 13, 1994 [1]. In 1994 the 'web' was a very different place and the current environment of web tracking and invasive advertising companies simply did not exist. And no one saw the privacy invading potential at the time.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie#History
- jeltz 4y agoYes, but someone here quoted an RFC showing that while people may not have understood this in 1994 they did in 1997. And now 25 years later the privacy issue was fixed.
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago> And no one saw the privacy invading potential at the time. Maybe not the privacy invasion potential but ... As we got started building amzn in the fall of 94, it was a no-brainer decision to not use cookies even though they were just arriving. The controversy around the idea was intense and it was far from clear that they would be a success as a technology. It is likely true that there was more attention being paid to the "what? it lets a remote server create a file on my driver?" angle than the privacy one.
- shubhamkrm 4y agoHow did you manage session information without using cookies?
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y agohttp://yourdomain.com/path/to/something?SESSION=af2828c119ae1 and yes, all URLs in every page were rewritten during page generation to include the session ID.
- marshray 4y agoDidn't that break bookmarks?
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y agoThis was 1994. Web technology was barely even emergent.
- jeltz 4y agoSometimes, but usually not. What it did enable was people accidentally leaking their sessions when sharing links.
- leaflets2 4y agoWhat did the company do then? (When their users started accidentally leaking session IDs) (Hmm but you're a different person :-))