I cannot easily see what information goes through an ASP form submitted with a ViewState parameter (where the page state is encoded in a blob buried in a JS var or HTML comment). Is that also surreptitious?
>I cannot easily see what information goes through an ASP form submitted with a ViewState parameter (where the page state is encoded in a blob buried in a JS var or HTML comment). Is that also surreptitious?
I can't say I completely understand the scenario, but if you're talking about a user filling out a form, then submitting that form, then no. That would be expected behavior.
Data may be encoded in any number of encodings depending on need. Encoded data isn't always human readable; especially so during secure transmission. It's not so much the inability for a human to read the encoded data as it is the data being consisting of only what is necessary to perform the action expected by the user; those expectations, of course, set via whichever means the user is interacting with the software.
That's exactly my point. "Surreptitious" is being used to mean "I think it's bad, and I think it's not expected." The "bad" part is obviously subjective, but even if we agree on that, the latter is where you really need standards bodies to agree on what is acceptable technology practices. To me, ad tracking is definitely expected (regardless of whether I think it's bad). I suspect it's also expected by nearly all HN participants, and ubiquitous ad tracking is even in the mainstream public consciousness outside of tech circles.
I can't say I completely understand the scenario, but if you're talking about a user filling out a form, then submitting that form, then no. That would be expected behavior.
Data may be encoded in any number of encodings depending on need. Encoded data isn't always human readable; especially so during secure transmission. It's not so much the inability for a human to read the encoded data as it is the data being consisting of only what is necessary to perform the action expected by the user; those expectations, of course, set via whichever means the user is interacting with the software.
Please correct me if I've misunderstood.