While Tom is worried about Pentagon advertisements watching him, you should be worried about local Congress members watchin you. As the Associated Press found, the NSA was using cookies to track web visitors, and now CNET has looked at Congress’s cookie use.
What did they find? Congress is watching you too. To quote them:
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for instance, has been a longtime advocate of strict privacy laws to restrict commercial Web sites’ data collection practices. In a statement posted on his own Web site, McCain assures visitors that “I do not use ‘cookies’ or other means on my Web site to track your visit in any way.” But visiting mccain.senate.gov implants a cookie on the visitor’s PC that will not expire until 2035.
CNET looked at every Congress member’s website cookies and found five local politicians raiding the cookie jar, one even with a pledge on their website against collecting cookies!
The local cookie trackers:
| Title | Name | Party | State | Pledge | Expires |
| Rep. | Hoyer, Steny | D | MD | No | Years: 30+ |
| Rep. | Cardin, Ben | D | MD | No | Years: 30+ |
| Sen. | Mikulski, Barbara | D | MD | Yes | Years: 30+ |
| Sen. | Allen, George | R | VA | No | Years: 30+ |
So the next time you see Sen. Mikulski, do me a favor, please. Ask her: How do you spell “hypocrisy”?
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
