Security hole in My Excite Channel

From Wired News: A security hole has been discovered in My Excite Channel, a customizable news and search page. The hole "makes it possible for third parties to view a wide range of surfers' personal preference data -- potentially everything from employment information to stock portfolios."

Graham Spencer, founder and chief technology officer of Excite Inc., acknowledged the problem Salisbury discovered. But he said the hole affects only those using computers shared by other My Excite users. If only one My Excite user is using a computer, Spencer said, his or her access information is stored on a cookie on the user's hard drive that does not get attached to the URL. If more than one My Excite account holder uses a single computer though, then ID information for each is included in his or her URL -- and is transferred to the log files of the next site visited."