Why are hidden fields considered client side state management?
<p>According to <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z1hkazw7.aspx" rel="nofollow">MSDN</a> and the MCTS self-paced training, asp.net can use Hidden fields for client-side state management.  The book material goes on to say view-state is more secure than hidden fields because the data is encrypted.  </p>

<p>I must be missing something here.  I setup a Label and made it hidden.  I can store data in this hidden label and it won't even be sent to the client browser.  This not only works like server side state (note the runat=server), but this seems more secure than view-state because there's no need for encryption as the client can't even see the field.</p>

<pre><code>&lt;asp:Label ID="Label1" Visible="false" runat="server"&gt;secret info&lt;/asp:Label&gt;
</code></pre>

<p>Contrast this with an HTML input field.  Here, the client state info makes sense.</p>

<pre><code>&lt;input id="Text2" type="text" style="visibility:hidden;" value="secret 99" /&gt;
</code></pre>

<p>So what's the deal?</p>
