How's it Possible for a Website to "sniff-out" my Full Name???

From: Robert (kernel99@hotmail.com)
Date: 03/05/03 

From: kernel99@hotmail.com (Robert)
Date: 4 Mar 2003 18:29:01 -0800

Last night, I clicked on a link to a website and to my shock, it
greeted me w/: "Welcome [my ACTUAL Full Name]!" Are there any
knowledgeable Internet security / privacy folks out there who can
explain how a website can do this? And, more importantly, how can I
prevent this from happening in the future? BTW, I use Netscape 4.7…
but my full name isn't entered anywhere in my Netscape preferences!
Are they somehow able to get this private info via my ISP??? Lastly,
is it possible for a website to access other files on my Computer
(e.g., MS Word documents)? (Obviously, I realize "hackers" can; but I
always thought the most a website could do was place a cookie on my
hard drive!… Do some websites now possess *hacking* capabilities?)

Thanx in advance for any helpful advice.

Robert

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