I wrote:
> I use my Gmail account for Fedora lists -- it's no secret that I'm on
> this list!
Mike McCarty asked:
> Explain how to use it without exposing my machine to cookie placement
> which can be used by third parties, and I'll reconsider.
I said:
> 1. Get a Gmail account. (Maybe use a different browser to sign up).
> 2. Set it so you can download all e-mail using POP3, and send using SMTP.
> 3. Clear all the cookies from the browser, and use a real mail client to
> send and receive in the future.
> I use Fetchmail so that list e-mail comes into Mutt as normal, and don't
> normally send through Gmail.
> Hope this helps,
Mike replied:
> It isn't explicit, but it does outline a procedure which might
> work. It does not, however, explain how to do it without exposure
> to placement of cookies. I guess you didn't read what I wrote
> quite carefully enough. You describe how to clean up the trash
> after exposure, which I was already aware of.
Or you didn't write it quite carefully enough... Yes, it allows cookie
placement. No, they can't be used by third parties, since you *only*
connect to Google before clearing all cookies. The worst that anyone can
do is Google can follow your session through signing up and setting the
preferences, and they do really have to know that it's your
newly-created "identity" doing all that anyway. In other words, any
other way that Google chose to do things would necessarily give them all
the information they can get from cookies.
If you really want, you could connect through Squid and use the ACLs to
ensure that your browser can only connect to *.google.com sites.
James.
--
E-mail: james@ | ... in order to work, [Microsoft] Vista's content
aprilcottage.co.uk | protection must be able to violate the laws of physics,
| something that's unlikely to happen no matter how much
| the content industry wishes it were possible.
| -- Peter Gutmann
