While this might at first seem to be only a nuisance, which would probably lead only to a serious increase in "targeted" junk paper mail or e-mail, there are more serious concerns for potential abuse. In addition to extensive information on personal interests, those individuals "who do online research on controversial areas such as abortion, birth control, capital punishment, or gun control might find themselves subjected to harassment from special-interest groups" (Dyrli, 20). This possibility has sinister overtones, given the wide variety of information available on the Internet, and the disparate individuals who maintain websites. The possibility of such abuse of information is not impossible, especially for researchers who frequently utilize search engines which use cookies. Both Infoseek and Lycos Inc. have the stated aim of creating a tracking system which would create highly detailed profiles of user search patterns. By matching the cookie identification with a user profile, the user's past search history can be accessed by the web server (Vonder Haar). If these search profiles were to be resold or otherwise accessed, the user's patterns of research would be immediately apparent. If any form of identification were linked to these profiles it might prove a serious invasion of user privacy, not unlike the records of public library patrons.

A closely related possibility is that user information could be resold to non-advertising entities, and possibly used in ways that advertisers had not intended. An extreme, but not impossible scenario was put forth by David Christle:

...if you visited a number of sites that advertise alcohol...and you end up on a list that your insurance company purchases. The list compiled from a variety of Internet sites shows your name as someone who frequents sites that promote alcohol, or at least as someone who is a prime prospect for alcohol sales. They raise your premiums on a profile that has been built about you based upon the sites you visit on the Internet.

Someone assumes this is an accurate profile...and acts upon this erroneous assumption...This scenario may never happen but the door has been opened...Just ask anyone who has been victimized by an inaccurate credit report.

Another possibility for cookies to pose an active threat to users would be in the case of law enforcement. There have been past instances where the distribution of online pornography has been tracked and arrests made on the basis of Internet activity. In the summer of 1995, "as part of Operation Longarm, the FBI cracked down on what was called a 'Child Pornography Ring' by posing as pedophiles on America Online. The FBI arrested 12 people on child porn charges" (White). At this time cookies were not yet a part of the Internet world, but there is a possibility that if user profiles compiled via cookies had been available to law enforcement, they might have been admissible as evidence. Computer files, like other documents, may be sized as evidence with proper warrants, and since the cookie file exists on the user's hard drive, they would be retrievable as are other files. Cyberspace law (see the Electronic Communications Privacy Act) is still being written, and it is a possibility that following a wrong link could land a user in legal trouble.

It should be noted that the Internet was considerably less than private before the widespread use of cookies. Webmasters can easily obtain information about users' IP addresses, browser type, last pages visited and more depending on the user's software and the program being executed (Robulack). Cookies are the preferred method of accruing data because the information persists from session to session, and allows the Web server to recognize a user as having visited from the same computer as before (Dern, 48). This is what allows the compilation of complex user profiles and large amounts of interest-data.