A 20-year-long permanent cookie: America.gov and tracking

pluc | 21 days ago

Never accept cookies from strangers.

Dwedit | 21 days ago

I mean 20 year cookies make sense for a logon cookie, but not something given out to guests.

JSR_FDED | 21 days ago

The “SI” apparently disagrees

verandaguy | 21 days ago

Why do they make sense as logon cookies?

EGreg | 21 days ago

Why not?

lokar | 21 days ago

The burden is to justify it.

What technical reason is there?

bsoqk | 21 days ago

How long should a cookie you expect to last forever actually last?

pixelatedindex | 21 days ago

Why should it last forever?

bsoqk | 21 days ago

Because when you log in you don’t want to be logged out at (what, for you, will appear to be) a random time of the future.

verandaguy | 21 days ago

The solution here is a "keep me logged in for 30 days" or "remember me for 7 days" label on the checkbox, not a forever cookie.

bsoqk | 21 days ago

That’s a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist. Nobody considers not getting logged out randomly a problem.

pixelatedindex | 21 days ago

You said:

> Because when you log in you don’t want to be logged out at (what, for you, will appear to be) a random time of the future.

> That’s a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist. Nobody considers not getting logged out randomly a problem.

Isn’t this contradictory? The double negatives are really throwing me for a loop. Regardless, it’s extremely common for you to be force-logged out of a session for any portal that has sensitive info.

You’re never logged into your bank forever, SSO logins expire. The ones that don’t expire are stuff like YouTube or Netflix, but only if you use it (length of refresh token validity). Checkbox for keeping a session valid is a legitimate solution and I’m grateful it exists. Why do you say it’s a problem that doesn’t exist, when you yourself said it does?

I do not understand your thesis.

verandaguy | 21 days ago

Just because it's not considered a problem by people without a technical or security background doesn't mean it isn't one.

We make many UX compromises in the name of security, and this is a place where that is most visible.

rpdillon | 20 days ago

But security is context-dependent. How often does HN log us out?

rpdillon | 20 days ago

That solves "random" but not "I don't wanna type my password every week".

lokar | 21 days ago

You think login.gov (Medicare, social security, tsa, irs, etc) should leave people logged in forever?

verandaguy | 21 days ago

Because in most security models, access is often time-limited.

30 days, for example, is quite long, though NIST does identify 30 days as being the maximum recommended auth token lifetime for low-risk environments.

Higher-risk environments come with 24-hour and 15-minute lifetimes, for context.

ape4 | 21 days ago

Of course, America.gov uses "SI". From its FAQ: America.gov uses SI to find and explain information from official government sources. SI can make mistakes, so check the sources included with each answer before making an important decision. To report a problem, select the feedback button below the answer and describe what was incorrect or out of date.

actionfromafar | 21 days ago

Shit Intelligence?

wholinator2 | 21 days ago

Supreme Idiocy, Superego Incinerator, Still Incomplete...

VCFundedGenYer | 21 days ago

Sports Illustrated often makes mistakes.

treetalker | 21 days ago

Saffron Impersonator

neuronexmachina | 21 days ago

Slop Induction

kajman | 21 days ago

This should be updated. It appears they've removed the regex triggered easter eggs, and it's well known that a Super Intelligence system is a combination of off the shelf LLM and hand written regex cases.

Or hand-prompted, more likely.

ukusormus | 21 days ago

Most browsers cap cookies' max lifetime to 400 days or less these days

bsoqk | 21 days ago

If this is the worst thing they’ve found in that portal…

integrallis | 21 days ago

This is nothing but an attempt to disenfranchise minorities and people living paycheck-to-paycheck that can afford the time to deal with yet another ID... this is an old technique, just like gerrymandering, poll intimidations, and the all the tactics republicans have been using for years.

klaff | 21 days ago

Who is writing these executive orders?