Your worries about compatibility can be solved using
different solutions to the same problem. If you don't
want cookies, then just use something like
Apache::SessionManager, which can handle sessions
inside URIs.
Of course, this doesn't resolve privacy issues, as you
can imagine, because it is still possible to track a user
even without cookies. On the other hand, it would be quite
impossible to put something in a basket on Amazon or build
something like PMonks, without something holding a state.
So there is no escape, except honesty.
BTW, it is possible to expire AuthBasic accounts.
Using cookies, just send an empty cookie (delete it) and the
user will not enter your site without re-authentication. Under
AuthBasic, just disable an account inside your htpasswd file.
But you will need some more glue :-))
Ciao, Valerio