FC: CDC.gov requires cookies, apparently in violation of WH order

I replicated what Twila found. Now, cookies, especially session cookies,
aren't anywhere near as awful as many people think, but there are two
points worth noting: (1) CDC appears to be violating a White House
directive from well over a year ago; (2) there's no reason a government
site should reject your requests for information if you turn off cookies.
Also see:

"Feds' hands caught in cookie jar, violating White House order"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01247.html

-Declan

---
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 10:45:19 -0500
To: declan_at_well.com
From: Twila Brase <twila_at_cchc-mn.org>
Subject: CDC requires cookies
Dear Declan:
It seems the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has decided not to 
give the public access to archived information unless citizens allow 
cookies to be set.
Without allowing a cookie to be set, their advanced search site refused to 
provided requested documents: 
http://www.phppo.cdc.gov/cdcRecommends/AdvSearchV.asp
I tried it any number of ways without success. There was no message even 
saying that a cookie was required--probably because doing so is not 
allowed. The site merely reloaded and came back with cleared search fields, 
and no additional information. Only when I allowed the cookie to be set, 
did I receive a list of all the documents relating to my search criteria.
Perhaps federal health department officials on your list would like to 
respond. I don't believe that they can require personal identification for 
access to public documents.
Twila Brase, R.N.
President
Citizens' Council on Health Care
651-646-8935p
*************************************************************
A citizens resource for designing the future of health care
*************************************************************
Citizens' Council on Health Care
1954 University Ave.W., Suite 8
St. Paul, MN  55104
651-646-8935 phone
651-646-0100 fax
http://www.cchconline.org
**************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------