Cookiegate

When the News agency Associated Press broke the story about the NSA's use of so-called "persistent cookies" to log who visits its website, the National Security Agency said it was all an accident. Government agencies can use session cookies that exist only as long as a visit to a particular website, but persistent cookies that are never deleted are prohibited following guidelines first issued in 2000 and subsequently updated in 2003 by the White House's Office of Management and Budget. Given President Bush's recent questionable wire-tapping without judicial approval, the NSA's claims cookies have left a bad taste in many people's mouths. This scandal is being called "Cookiegate".