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Yahoo!'s Persistent Cookie documentation
 

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If you use the RealNetworks RealDownload, Netscape/AOL Smart Download, or NetZip Download Demon utilities in their default configuration . . .
EVERY TIME you use one of these utilities to download ANY FILE from ANYWHERE on the Internet, the complete "URL address" of the file, along with a UNIQUE ID TAG that has been assigned to YOUR  machine, and — in the case of Netscape's SmartDownload only — YOUR computer's individual Internet IP address, is immediately transmitted to the program's publisher.
This allows a database of your entire, personal, file download history to be assembled and uniquely associated with your individual computer . . . for whatever purpose the program's publishers may have today, or tomorrow.
 [ full story ]

"Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation -- and their ideas from suppression -- at the hand of an intolerant society." [ read ]
 

PROJECT-X's display will expose crucial information that's been hidden inside your computer by people who have their best interests in mind, not yours. You will learn that an important truth has been kept from you by others who have been in control, until now. And it's likely that you'll be concerned by what you learn -- which is why this information has been deliberately kept out of sight. You may be a bit unnerved by what PROJECT-X shows you about your own computers, but I believe you'll want to know what's really going on in there, and you'll agree it's better to know, than not.
 [ read article ]
 

[ Internetnews ]

So lets talk cookies. Everywhere around the Web, cookies are being sent to your computer. Advertisers send you cookies, hardware companies send you cookies, software companies send you cookies, and even hackers may try to send you cookies. In the least intrusive of cases, they would like to know how often they get you to visit. They would like to know what browser their visitors are using, how often you come back, and where else you go. It helps them in their corporate quest for profit, target marketing, building a profile of who goes where on their websites, and building a profile of where you, if you ever become their customer, go and visit.

Here's a cookie warning from my browser, Netscape 4.73. It is sent by "hitbox.com", an advertising company that has a little box on the bottom of ringsurf.com pages:

You can see how "persistent" the cookie is: it expires on November 10, 2001, because that will be exactly ONE YEAR later than I captured it.
 

This one is sent to you when you access, with your login name at Yahoo! completed, the Yahoo!WebRing domain. It will be sent TO ALL servers in the domain WebRing by Yahoo! This time Yahoo! does not tell you when the cookie expires.

Now, here is an example I have a problem with:

This is one of FIVE cookies, sent to you, when you access a Club at yahoo!, after you have logged in. This cookie stays lurking around ion your computer for ten years. Sorry, nine years, five months and four days. Firstly, in the trashcan society of today, it is NOT likely that I still use my old computer (it's an old 486/66Mhz, and yes, I made my entire Web Site with it!) ten years from now. Secondly, it is unlikely that I will still be interested in the Yahoo! Club where I captured it in 2010. Thirdly, and most importantly, I wonder whether this is a legal thing. What does the Federal Trade Corporation say about this? Are there rules about cookies? Is there legislation in place about cookies?
 

The cookie warnings which pop up in my browser will only pop up if I set my warnings 'up' in Netscape. Internet Explorer has the same option to switch warnings off. Some argue that both IE and Netscape have colluded with Yahoo!, one of the largest Internet compoanies around the place, so that Yahoo! can maintain its invasive practices without too many problems.
 

Now, I don't even think of this as outrageous. I think of this as plain stupid. Why make your visitors paranoid, if they have their cookie warnings up "high", like I did when I went to write this page, by sending this cookie that expires in 2037, when I'm well past my eightieth birthday?
 

It is evident that my date of birth is an identifier, and by means of coding my birth year, egroups can confirm some details. At least this is announced in the cookie details.