Introduction

There is sometimes a relationship between theft and privacy. Theft and related crimes, such as fraud, often occur after one's personal information has been compromised. In fact, compromised personal information can be the very means used to commit the crimes.

It used to be said that you need not be concerned about privacy unless you have something to hide. Now, most people understand that everyone should have something to hide, that is, personal information that can be used for identity theft or other kinds of fraud. In this chapter we will be talking about matters related to the privacy of information – information that can be used for good, or for bad, purposes.

Cookies

Something as yummy as a cookie doesn't sound like it could be a bad thing, does it? Usually it's not. We're talking here about electronic cookies, of course. They are bits of information sent to a browser by a Web server when contact is first made with it. Some servers place cookies on browsers that contact them, but not all of them do. If placed, the cookie is stored on the browser's computer and the information on it can be accessed the next time the browser is used to visit the Web server that placed the cookie. For instance, have you ever revisited a server and had the server call you by name. How could it do that?