2nd question? Actually a bit more..

Again my apologies, but is anyone familiar with an internet protocol called "SOAP" or do I really have to read the W3 papers and abstracts?

Any knowledge of "ETAGS"?

How about "P3P"?

As near as I've been able to tell these all deal somehow with a "machine shorthand" (if you will) to compactly hold and list a websites privacy polices, data collection policies, or in the case of "ETAGS" allow me to pull a web page with a simple bit of code if the page contained only new data, otherwise I'd get a "304" or "Not modified" reply from the server.

Other than the obvious, such as an "out of sight, out of mind" abusive and overt data collection policy which you would only be aware of IF you have these protocols embedded in your software, AND you called them up.
Does revealing a websites privacy and data collection policies have to be this complex? What happened to the good ol' simple link?

Now about this "ETAGS" protocol, standard, whatever it is. Since, as I understand it, this "ETAG" only changes if data on the server changes, could this be used to quickly pull the newest data only from a server, if say I had a server acting as a automated repository collecting data? What if that data was pin numbers, access codes, and account numbers? What if I blocked the normal "public" acqusition of the sites "ETAG"? Would you ever be able to access any data, since you don't have a referance to even know what data was there to begin with? Is it possible that this could be used then almost as a "blind drop"?

Sorry for questions and the length, I'm just perplexed by some odd replys from a "non-existant" server running a URL of an IP in a range registered to Microsoft, that is +3 GMT time zone, running all these protocols. Which additionally returned a message of "This is a virtual page, with a virtual index that cannot be listed.

Just trying to figure the angles..

 

I always post these questions here:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=25

 

Oh,....thanks for the link.

 

See SOAP