White House To Probe Itself

White House To Probe WebTrends' Cookie Use

WebTrends uses cookies to track visitors to the White House web site, but claims no personal or identifying data is sent back to the company.

By Anick Jesdanun , The Associated Press

Dec 30, 2005 09:32 AM

NEW YORK (AP)--Unbeknown to the Bush administration, an outside contractor has been using Internet tracking technologies that may be prohibited to analyze usage and traffic patterns at the White House's Web site, an official said Thursday.

David Almacy, the White House's Internet director, promised an investigation into whether the practice is consistent with a 2003 policy from the White House's Office of Management and Budget banning the use of most such technologies at government sites.

"No one even knew it was happening," Almacy said. "We're going to work with the contractor to ensure that it's consistent with the OMB policy."

http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=175800030

Who knew?

Right!

another one comes out.

:evilgrin:

it's a nice place to visit . . .

In honor of my lifelong Dem Mom's 80th birthday, we had a family reunion in DC one weekend and through Barbara Mikulsky's congressional office got tickets for a VIP White House tour - we were all honored to be able to visit this historic building, and my Mom was absolutely thrilled. Oh, hell, we were all thrilled. This was during the Clinton years of course. It was a great Washington weekend, with a trolley car tour of the capital Saturday, then a dinner party in the top floor restaurant of the Kennedy Center, followed by a symphony performance (front row seats) with James Galway as featured soloist and a Sunday morning champagne brunch at the Corcoran Gallery with a gospel jazz group performing. Those were the days, my friends, when our beautiful capitol was the people's capitol and not the K Street Lobbyists' domain. My oldest brother died just two years later - so that weekend was the last time we were all together. Good memories.

But, you are absolutely correct. There is nothing like touring our halls of government, be they the WH, the Capitol, the congressional office buildings, the Library of Congress. It's best to go down to Wash. when the weather is mild and walk. The folks who are in charge of the security and other things are just wonderful and helpful. I cherish the memories of my visits and appreciate the city that much more.

The headline creates quite a visual.

For my Billion Dollar Cheney Flash video!

hahahaha -- "unbeknown to the Bush Administration."

http://www.boobooday.com/cheneyflash.htm

And very funny!


Cher

It was my little Christmas gift to myself. Making G. Washington bash Cheney with the guitar was good therapy. :-)

You know, maybe they had decided to take our suggestions literally.

they are gonna launch an investigation into "cookies"
but when it comes to outting a CIA agent.. these crooks run for cover.

I want my money back... these guys are clowns.

In fact a lot of hosting providers provide it to their customers as an added service. I see nothing nefarious here, just standard web hosting. DU probably has a webtrends like monitoring package.

Im not one to defend the white house at all. But this allegation is just ignorant of standard buisness practice.

the article says that the way the White House was linking the bugs to cookies to determine whether a person has visited repeatedly (like me) was not done lawfully.

". . . a federal agency using them must demonstrate a "compelling need," get a senior official's signoff and disclose such usage, said Peter Swire, a Clinton administration official who helped draft the original rules."

I know it's a paperback novel not some latex thingy.

good article too . . .