You’ve definitely got them on your computer, and no, your browser doesn’t have an option to delete them.

I’m talking about Flash Cookies.

Flash cookies are a little known feature in Macromedia Flash Player, that allow sites to track your whereabouts online, and build a list of things you’re interested in. It’s how marketers keep track of just what age group you may be in, and what sex you may be.

And it’s very well hidden from end users.

In fact a new lawsuit says Overture uses these hidden “zombie cookies” to recreate your computer’s computers once you’ve deleted them. This means, even after you’ve deleted your cookies, traces of your browsing patterns still remain.

How do you fix it?

Either disable Flash, or learn to delete your Flash cookies too. It is a bit of a hassle to do either, so remember, you can always just use a DemocraKey. All your Flash data is deleted upon every run.

The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan have figured out a way to “hack” the live video feeds of Predator drones.

In fact, there was nothing to hack.

Apparently, whomever created the Predator drones and wrote their software assumed the insurgents wouldn’t check the communications networks. Because they decided not to encrypt video feeds, leaving their entire intelligence gathering open to anyone with a satellite dish.

In this information age, encryption is becoming more and more important. Everything of any sensitivity needs to be encrypted. As we’ve seen with the Predator drones, millions of dollars on intelligence are wasted, if any schmuck with a satellite dish and a receiver can pick it up.

This software, which allows insurgents to download streams of Predator drones, was originally written to download music illegally. Skygrabber was written to hijack other people’s internet connections over satellite. And so, any unencrypted communication over satellite is downloadable, and more importantly, undetectable.

As private citizens, we need to become more encryption savvy. It’s up to us to know what’s encrypted, and what’s not. Because we now live in an age where the bad comment can come back to bite us thirty years down the road. Everything is being recorded online, somewhere. And it will be analyzed, if it is not encrypted.

More photos and insight available at JDHodges.