No, not from a cookie. In the past if your browser was configured as an email client, just visiting a web site could provide your email address (this goes way way back - not sure when that vulnerability was taken care of.) [not anymore]
If you visit a web site, the web site knows and can collect - with or without cookies enabled:
0) Date/Time you visited (also how long you're at the web site?)
1) What Browser you're using - IE, FireFox, Opera, Safari, etc.
Safari used to have a feature to "spoof" the website, so if it tested for IE and refused to display for any browser except IE, you could make Safari say that it's IE and the web page would be enabled (and possibly displayed. (does it still have that feature?)
2) Your IP address (not a big deal unless you have a static IP) but this provides information about your host (ISP) and indirectly, your general location (ie, city)
So if an ad wanted to target me that way, it would know not to give me ads for "In & Out Burgers" since that restaurant is on the west coast and I am web surfing in New York.
3) The web site you were previously looking at
(so if you were looking at www.Mcdonalds.com/Big_Mac and then
visited www.BurgerKing.com, Burger King would know you were previously looking at Mcdonalds' big mac web page - whether you typed the URL, clicked a bookmark or clicked on a link to get to Burger King (as if McDonalds would have a link to Burger King :-) It doesn't distinguish how you came to the site, it knows only where you came from.
If you forget the web site for White Castle and need to Google or Yahoo it each time, White Castle knows that you came to their site from a search engine (and which one)
[dang, I keep thinking about hamburgers. What would Freud say about this????]
So, for example, if your start page is your personal page, the sites that you visit subsequent can get an idea of who you are.
If you browse around and then visit Amazon to order stuff, it is possible for them to collect the info, for example, that you looked at www.dpreview.com before going to Amazon to buy that camera or pink Zune.
4) Your operating system - which flavor of windows, mac, linux etc
Again - all this, no cookies required. |
